Strange Wishes
by Elizabeth Hemingway
Summary: The souls bound to one blighted wishing stone will face their greatest obstacles yet when Kagome is entrusted with the destinies of both past and future. To keep what she cherishes most, Kagome may have to give up even more.
1. A Date With Destiny

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Strange Wishes is dedicated to Takahashi Rumiko, the mother of all that is InuYasha

A Date with Destiny

Kagome awoke to a tickling in her nose from the scent of her mother's excellent cooking that had wafted up from the kitchen to fill her bedroom. Sweeping her dark, sleep-tousled hair from her face, she blinked at the sunlight permeating her window and caught sight of the time. It was nearly twelve o'clock. Kagome rolled out of the sheets, heading for the bathroom the second her feet hit the carpet.

Why hadn't anyone woken her up? Of course, it was Saturday, but didn't her family know that she had things to do? If she wasn't going through the well to the Sengoku Jidai then she had something else that she'd be late for if she slept until all hours. Her lunch date for example, Houjou would be arriving to pick her up for any minute.

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Not that I wanted to go with him or anything, She thought as she leapt under the water fountaining from the showerhead, _but he's not causing any harm in liking me, and I can't just say 'sorry Houjou, you're nice and all, but you have no chance with me because I'm in love with an inuhanyou and if you tried to take his place in my heart you'd always fall short'._

In a race against time, Kagome shampooed and washed and dried and dressed and brushed and combed, but even as she glanced away from her perky reflection in the mirror the clock spoke that Houjou had been made to wait for ten minutes.

Snatching up her purse, she bolted from the room and down the stairs. Her mind halted its worrying for a split second when her nostrils were bombarded once more by the intense smells of cooking and her eyes by the scene in her kitchen.

There her mother was, bustling around, no less than ten pots and pans demanding her attention. Some simmered on the stove while others awaited her on the countertops clustered with bowls of food. Some of the steam snaked out of the open window, but most of it had gathered about the ceiling and hanging plants, transforming the tiny kitchen into a sweltering jungle.

"Oh, Kagome! Good to see--"

"What are you doing in here, Mom? It looks like you're cooking for a dozen people!"

Her mother smiled as she bent to open the oven, "Twenty-five actually. I'm having a dinner party tonight. Invited some old and new friends."

"Oh, that's cool." Kagome remarked dazedly as she eyed the sparkling cake that was born from the oven by her mother's orange mitts.

Kagome was only shuddered out of her fascination with the mountains of unprepared food when her mother mentioned InuYasha.

"Sorry, what?"

"I was just saying," Her mother looked across the table at her fondly, "That you've been home longer than usual. Did something happen with InuYasha?"

Kagome smirked, "Please, Mom. I don't need InuYasha to watch out for me every time I come to visit my family. It's not like there are demons attacking me wherever I...I go..."

Kagome trailed off, hit by a sudden epiphany. No, she never had been attacked by a demon in modern time. In fact, she'd never actually seen any proof that the youkai that were so commonplace in the Feudal Era still existed. Sure, there was the Noh Mask and the Soul Piper, but those were a fair stone's throw from being youkai, who supposedly lived out five-hundred years like a day and a half. She must have been pretty lost in thought, because next thing she knew her mother was shaking her shoulder.

"...Kagome? Houjou is waiting for you out by the Goshinboku you know," She intoned, stirring her daughter from her reverie.

"Oh! Thanks Mom! Bye!" She hoped he wasn't too angry about her punctuality, and quickly following that up with another thought, _Who am I kidding? This is Houjou, not InuYasha!_

"Have a good time, Dear!" Her mother's farewell faded away as Kagome slid the front door shut and headed past the gate and through the main shrine toward where Houjou sat, his short brown hair clean and moderately styled, observing his surroundings amiably.

"Hey, Higurashi!" He waved, removing himself from the bench he'd been occupying, "Glad to see you're feeling well."

Glancing only once at the well house, Kagome strode to his side feeling idly confident outside of her usual school uniform, brushing the hem of her new green sundress as she followed the youth to the steps of the shrine and down to the sidewalk where they started toward the cafe.

The spring day was breathtaking. A hint of wind sluiced past the blossom-laden branches of the trees, and the grass was patched with sun and shade, butterflies fluttering with the bees beside the abundant flowers. Present-day Tokyo was not nearly as beautiful as the Sengoku Jidai, but then again there weren't so many streets, buildings, and cars five-hundred years ago. Kagome enjoyed it all the same, and was almost sad when they left the fresh air in favor of the indoor cafe.

Kagome sat herself demurely, facing Houjou in the seat across the table from him as he gazed at her, questioning her occasionally and commenting on the perfect weather. She wiped her brow in thanks when a waitress came to take their order, successfully peeling Houjou's ingratiating eyes off of her.

She supposed she really should tell Houjou that she didn't return his feelings, whatever ilk of affectionate they might be. He didn't have a clue, and he was so determined in his as-of-yet fruitless efforts at courting her. Why Kagome didn't like him in that way confused even her, but she knew for a fact that she felt nothing between them, and that she only went on these dates with him out of respect for their friendship and the goodness of her heart.

Her food arrived paired with a drink, which she sipped at gratefully, not removing her mouth from it until it was all gone, only to reach for the meal on her plate to fill the void in her mouth with rather than converse.

Her plan was foiled however, by Houjou's innocent rambling, "Hey, aren't those your friends over there?"

Kagome balked, her vivacious brown eyes descrying the three schoolgirls at once. The threshold was crossed by none other than Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi, the three of whom flounced over to a table near the entrance and only exit.

Kagome grimaced, knowing that soon enough they would spot her and then spot Houjou and all manner of girlish squealing and interrogation would take place. What Kagome wouldn't give to avoid that.

She made a move for Houjou's arm and stood up from the table, relaying in a tremulous whisper, "Um...let's leave. I don't feel very hungry all of a sudden..."

"Higurashi, is something--?"

"Shhh!" Kagome shushed his loud voice, pulling him slowly along a route that she prayed was not in the line of her friends' peripheral vision.

"Higurashi," Houjou said a little more firmly, "If you really want to leave I have to pay."

"Okay," Kagome let go of his arm as he got out his wallet, keeping her eyes trained on her friends' table as they whispered amongst themselves.

Kagome couldn't help but overhear as Yuka commented rather loudly, "Kagome's seventeenth birthday's coming up you guys."

"I say we throw her a surprise party," Ayumi suggested.

"We can't forget to invite Houjou," Eri put in. "I just hope Kagome doesn't insist on her two-timing boyfriend coming too."

Yuka smirked, "That's why it'll be a surprise birthday party."

Mercy arrived in the form of a waiter just as the yen in Houjou's hand floated down to the tabletop, and all the three heads of her friends swiveled away from Kagome and her date and onto the man mentally jotting down their orders.

Kagome wordlessly grabbed Houjou and yanked him along with her as she all but ran out of the cafe, her dark hair swishing behind her until she stopped on the sidewalk, panting.

Houjou's hand found her shoulder, "Would you like to take a walk then, Higurashi?"

"Yes," Kagome answered breathlessly, "Yes, that would be great."

Houjou walked alongside her as they gradually put distance between themselves and her friends, every now and then trying to start conversation while tacitly telling her how much he liked her through his eyes. Kagome couldn't really comprehend enough of what he was talking about to say anything back; she was too busy trying to work up the courage to tell him, politely, that she didn't like him like that.

"That's too bad," Houjou said forlornly, his nose turned skyward, "I thought it was going to be a nice day."

The sun had been covered up when the sky had clouded over, and the beauty of the world around them became shrouded without its light.

Kagome uttered a nonchalant 'Oh', and turned away from him, his kind voice and boyish demeanor having shattered her resolve to crush his dreams of being with her. She stopped in her tracks as her eyes lit upon the gate they were passing.

"Higurashi?" Houjou questioned, following her gaze.

It was the cemetery. Kagome hadn't been paying attention to how far they'd walked. She let her hand rest on the stone wall as she peered past the bars of the gate at the many grave markers, one of them her father's.

"Would you...like to go in there?" Houjou asked.

"Yes." She said simply.

Houjou opened the gate for her, trailing along behind like a puppy at her heels as she stepped inside, weaving through burial plots. Little square gravestones had been erected every few feet along the hillside, green and spacious compared to the clogged city beyond its mortal world. Tall sticks marked with Kanji had been staked alongside the graves, honoring the memories of dead souls by standing over the bones they'd left behind.

When Kagome's awareness came back she found her feet had taken her to her father's grave, small and plain and made of stone like the rest, but she knew that described nothing of the man who was her and her brother's father, her mother's husband...

"I haven't been here in a while," Kagome said with a smile more to herself than to Houjou, who shuffled his feet beside her.

"This is your father? I'm sorry..." He said heavily.

"No need to be sorry Houjou," Kagome sighed as a menacing wind ruffled her dress, "It happened forever ago, I guess."

The two kept their eyes on the grass around the stone, devoid of flowers or anything remarkable. Kagome barely registered Houjou's silent discomfort, more intent on removing the bracelet on her wrist as her mind replayed old memories, reexamined past feelings and experiences. She knelt down, placing the string of colorful beads before the gravestone, then stood up again, still lost in half-faded memories of her deceased father as her eyes wandered across the boneyard.

Her heavy lids lost some of there weight when she saw what must have been the largest gravestone in the whole cemetery not far away. She remembered it from the last time she'd visited there the previous autumn and all the times before that, but had never taken time to give it much thought. Glancing fondly at the bracelet once more she departed from her father's grave and wandered off to the colossal memorial located at what seemed to be the nidus of the tombstones.

Kagome stopped before it, amazed at its sheer height and width. It looked terribly ancient, but still retained most of the statuesque beauty that it was meant to present when originally crafted.

"Wow, big headstone," Houjou lauded from her side, "Whose is it?"

Kagome searched the planate surface for a name, half-expecting not to come across it. When she found it however, her hand flew to her mouth in shock which she was unable to hold in.

"What is it?" Houjou asked concernedly, finding the name just as she had, "Do you know this 'Sesshoumaru' person?"

Kagome couldn't speak, couldn't tear her hand away from her mouth nor her eyes from the name that had been so clearly inscribed upon the stone at the time it was stationed above the inuyoukai's bones. She scanned the surface of the tombstone of InuYasha's half-brother frantically, failing to decipher any more of the weather-eroded Kanji, still not truly believing what it said. She eventually found the epitaph she desired in the form of a fairly new plaque near the base.

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Lord Sesshoumaru of the Southern and Western Lands, son of a great and fearsome Warlord, rests here. Legend tells of his death early sixteenth century (from ailments unknown). His grave was the first to be placed on this empty plot of land which would become home to many more dead, and stands today as one of the oldest gravesites in Japan. It is said that the mystical power the Lord possessed still guards and resides in his tomb. His wife was buried alongside him not long after, and since then his bloodline's graves have accumulated here over the centuries.

Kagome stood up suddenly, making Houjou jump as she ran around the tombstone, feasting her eyes on the grave beside the inuyoukai's. Kagome read the faded Kanji, moving onto the next one as soon as she saw that the memorial named the deceased as Sesshoumaru's wife and mother to his children. Their graves she quickly spotted, all the while not able to keep her astonishment from showing nor the steady flow of fear that began to shake her limbs.

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Please don't let InuYasha's grave be here, She pleaded with the deities as she crept through the monstrous graves of the inuyoukai's family. Her hands shook as she turned the last corner, finding nothing more than Sesshoumaru's so-many-greats grandchildren. A wave of relief swept over her, the fear escaping her body in a few quivering breaths as she pushed away the wonder at such a discovery for another minute.

"Higurashi?" She whirled to face her date when he spoke, unaware up until that point of exactly how strangely she must've been acting, "Are you...I mean do you feel alright?"

"I-I'm fine Houjou, don't worry," She swept her bangs out of her face as he approached her concernedly.

"Really? Are you sure?" He asked as he placed his hand softly on her shoulder.

She felt it would be impolite to withdraw from what he meant to be a comforting touch, "No really, I'm fine," She took a steadying breath, "I'm sorry, I just got a little carried away."

She glanced around at the graves once more as Houjou's face broke into a grin, "Oh good. Higurashi, I'm...I mean, you're--"

The schoolgirl shifted her gaze back to him, confused at his apparent struggle with speech.

"Higurashi," He nearly yelled, possibly to ossify his resolve, then requested in a smoother tone, "Would you do me the honor of going to the White Day Dance with me?"

The words took a millennia to hit her brain, and when they did her body seemed to turn to goo as the reactions went back and forth inside her, little shocks of lightning, all telling her what to do at once. She ended up gaping in front of him like an idiot, totally at a loss for what course of action to take.

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I should have crushed his dreams back at the cafe when we were still basically just friends. Now I have to destroy his reality and possibly scar him for life by refusing to go with him! She thought as she attempted to speak, her vocal cords only uttering little nonsensical rasps of sound, making Houjou deflate a bit more with each passing second. _I could always say yes._

She shook the offending thought away, "Houjou--uh..." Kagome lowered her head so that she saw only feet. This was going to be a lot more difficult than she thought. He'd asked her so abruptly!

"Yes, Kagome?" He said her name tenderly, succeeding in lodging a lump of poisonous dread in the girl's stomach.

She expelled her next sentence with abnormal haste, her heart beating so furiously she thought it might explode, "I'm sorry Houjou, you're a very nice guy but I can't go with you."

She looked up at him, telling herself she was prepared for anything, but singed down to the soul at the look on his face. Almost without thinking she added, "I'm already going with someone else."

Her salve had worked. the older boy's face brightened considerably, shedding its depressed skin for a more disappointed one. Kagome chided herself silently, _Great; I lied. I can't back out of it now._

"Oh. Guess I should've asked you earlier," He sighed and chuckled at the same time.

"I'm sorry," Kagome reiterated, trying to banish her own guilt as well as his sorrowful dejection.

The silence persisted for a minute until Houjou looked back up at the dark sky, the near setting sun obscured by fat gray rain clouds.

"If you'll allow me to walk you home, Higurashi?" He extended his arm with a smile.

Kagome nodded, casting one last look at Sesshoumaru's as well as her father's grave as they exited by way of the gate and made in the direction of the Shrine.

- - - -

Rain began to pour not ten minutes after Houjou had seen her home and then left with a slightly less jubilant smile than the one he had displayed for her when he picked her up around noon. The sun had yet to set, but it might as well have been nighttime already; the unpredicted storm was announced to be something of a squall. It was a good thing her mother's dinner guests had already arrived; the weather was growing rougher every minute.

Kagome's thoughts rattled around in her brain as she lay in a heap on her bed, still wearing the green sundress from earlier. Thoughts of Sesshoumaru's death four-hundred years ago interlaced with Houjou's disheartened expression haunted her mind, leaving scarcely any room for other activities.

She shifted her head wearily, searching the calendar for the date of the infamous White Day Dance. She had told Houjou she had a date already, but what when he found out she'd only said that to get out of going with him? She didn't want to imagine his expression then; she'd crushed his spirit sufficiently as it was. Kagome groaned into her pillow, taking a minute to register the sound of her window sliding open and movement beside her.

"I thought you said you were coming right back?" An all-to-familiar voice accused.

"InuYasha?" She sat upright with a smile, which was quickly wiped away when the soaking wet hanyou began to shake himself dry, "No, don't!"

It was too late. The shimmering beads that had previously soaked his red haori and hakama and dripped down his long mane of silver hair were now splashed all over her bedroom and herself. He flicked his fuzzy ears happily. Kagome seethed.

"InuYasha! Get out!" She yelled, pushing him toward the door.

"Hey!" He groused, stopping her progress by latching onto the doorframe with his claws.

"Thanks to you I have to get changed, and you're not staying in here while I do that!"

"Don't see the point. I've already seen you naked more times than I can count," He mumbled, claws still clinging to the walls.

"Go and get some ramen or something!" Kagome shouted vehemently, giving the inuhanyou a final shove and successfully sending him into the hallway, slamming the door behind him before he could spy her deep blush.

She tore off her wet sundress heatedly, plucking fresh clothes from her drawer. She froze in the process of pulling on the last article of clothing, a short yellow skirt, her eyes fixing on the calendar as an inchoate and slightly frightening idea manifested itself in her brain.

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What if...what if I asked InuYasha to take me to the White Day Dance? She stared at the date in nervous wonder, hardly believing the coincidence, _It's on the night of the new moon!_

Her thoughts were pierced by a scream from downstairs, and all too painfully the flood of reality crashed down on her in a tidal wave, and she coupled InuYasha's presence with her mother's dinner party to form a cruel plight.

"Oh no!" The girl breathed, pulling on her skirt and dashing out of the door, nearly tripping over Buyo who sat lounging in the middle of the floor as she flew haphazardly down the stairs.

The scene that met her as she skidded to a halt took her so unawares, she was surprised she didn't die laughing or something else; she hadn't ever seen that many people so adamant about touching InuYasha's ears. The men looked on in abject disgust at the women queuing up, boxing him in as his cheeks burned red and he frantically tired to escape with the furry white appendages intact.

"I'm next!"

"No, I get to touch them next!"

"Mrs. Higurashi, your daughter's boyfriend is _adorable_!"

Kagome yelped with a blush as she decidedly dove into the crowd of guests her mother had invited, fishing InuYasha out from the center. He looked more than relieved as Kagome pulled him away from their greedy hands, apologizing as she left the room with the silver-haired half-demon in tow.

The pair had just reached the stairs when Kagome stopped upon seeing Souta, her younger brother, barreling toward them.

"Great...," She heard InuYasha groan as the fifth grader drew nearer the red-clad, red-faced young man, his eyes aglow with respect for the hanyou.

"InuYasha!" He cried, grabbing onto his billowing haori sleeve and sticking like glue, "You're here! How long are you staying?"

Kagome looked to her brother, then to her friend, then to the window, and sighed, "I think he'll be staying here tonight Souta."

InuYasha's grunt of disapproval was drowned out by Souta's enthusiastic whoop and a roll of thunder that shook the walls.

"I thought you said I could have some ramen, Kagome," InuYasha growled, acknowledging his staying the night in his own way.

Kagome let go of him, "Okay, just wait up in my room and I'll make it for you--unless you want your ears pulled off by Mom's friends."

InuYasha was up the stairs in a heartbeat with Souta following behind him as she made her way toward where they kept the ramen, rolling her eyes.

- - - -

Kagome assumed InuYasha had lost her smitten little brother some way or another; when she entered her bedroom with the hot cup of ramen in hand she found InuYasha sitting on her bed alone, cradling his Tessaiga. His eyes opened and the deep gold shone onto her as soon as she entered, making her feel things that she was always confused about when she was with him. Quicker than she could comprehend he had taken the noodles and begun inhaling them back on the bed.

The unexpected memory of the cemetery floated across her brain, and she found herself ogling the calendar. Thankfully InuYasha was too occupied with the ramen to notice her nervous squirming as she contemplated asking him about the dance right then and there.

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He wouldn't say yes. He'd think it was weird, she told herself convincingly. Shyly, she sat down next to him and drew her legs up onto the bed, _And more importantly, he'd say no because it would take up precious time that could be better spent collecting jewel shards._

InuYasha must've caught her at the exact moment the bitter thought was on her mind, because the ramen cup was lowered from his mouth as he eyed her warily, "What's the matter with you now?"

Kagome started, "Ah...nothing! So, how is everything on the other side of the well? Good?"

InuYasha narrowed his eyes at her, scarfing down the rest of the ramen before answering, "Yeah...Miroku and Sango have been acting really weird though--weirder then normal I mean--since they got back from that trip to the Slayers' Village. The furball misses you too."

Kagome assumed he meant Shippou, but his cold tone was ignored as she smiled inwardly at the fact that he hadn't gone into a tirade about jewel shards, _Maybe there's hope._

A sudden burst of thunder that followed a flash of lightning caused Kagome to jump. InuYasha smirked, "It's just the weather, it's not a youkai."

"I know," She frowned at him, reminded indirectly of Sesshoumaru's grave once more.

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Why am I so concerned about his death? If he found himself in an early grave he sure deserved it! For all the innocent people he killed and all those times he nearly killed InuYasha... But then again, it can't be denied that he's changed. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to wield Tenseiga.

She couldn't keep herself from wondering about it. What of his marriage? She hadn't been able to discern the name of his wife in her frantic search, but she had a hard time picturing Sesshoumaru with children. Kagome wondered if he'd been killed, or if InuYasha himself had killed him. That was the only explanation for his death so long ago. Aside from wondering why his grave was there at all, she was puzzled at its size; their father's bones would have taken up the entire graveyard and then some. She contemplated whether or not to ask the hanyou sitting beside her.

There were so many things she wanted to ask him, wanted to tell him...but so much of it she couldn't. What was stopping her? Was it him? No, it was her. Her and that damned Naraku and the Shikon no Tama. So much had changed in the near two years they'd been together, but still she didn't have the courage to tell him what she wanted, just like she hadn't had the courage to tell Houjou...and look where that had gotten her.

She was stirred out of her trance-like train of thought rather forcefully when she felt the pressure of InuYasha's soft head on her lap and looked down to meet his tranquil gaze. She opened her mouth to speak but she had lost the ability to form words, and had to fight the urge to cover her swiftly flushing cheeks when she saw him flick his ears, realizing what he was doing.

"Uh--InuYasha...," Kagome began, trying to inject some composure into her voice.

His eyes softened, but the tone in which he spoke held his customary gruffness, which helped to steady her dancing nerves slightly, "Well you...I mean, you did it before...so...feh--"

Kagome couldn't have said why she did it--it was beyond her control--but just as he made to get up her fingers went to his ear, allotting tender touches across the velutinous expanse. He looked surprised for a hot second before his eyes fell closed and his head settled on her legs as the rain continued to pound on the roof outside.

She couldn't help but notice that the experience wasn't all that bad, and remember all the feelings of softness and closeness she'd had not a few weeks prior when she'd rubbed his ears in the same way, his head warming her legs. She had a hunch that the only reason InuYasha allowed himself to linger in this position was due to the fact that they were completely alone, but all the same, Kagome enjoyed it a little too much.

Perhaps it was that which spurred her next action when she saw his content expression and processed the soft whining sound originating from what could only have been the boy in her lap as another crack of lightning broke the dark sky outside. She let go of his ear with a soft gasp and all but leapt from the bed, hearing his head fall back onto the mattress as she backed away from the bed.

She felt her heartbeat take on an unnatural rhythm when he spoke in a markedly husky voice, "Kagome? What--?"

It all happened so fast, but not too fast for an inuhanyou. Kagome was backing toward her desk when her foot connected with an irregular bump on the floor, causing her to overbalance. She squeaked in surprise when she found herself falling and would have hit the floor face first had not two strong arms broken gravity's baneful pull on her. She was pulled upright and given a once over by an anxious InuYasha before she could do anything besides scream inwardly that his hands were around her and holding her so close that she could feel the heat radiating off his skin and onto her own.

"Uh--I-I have to go...to the bathroom," The fib tumbled out of her in a rush as she was loosed from the warmth of his arms. Her feet propelled her out into the corridor and she shut the door behind her, half-relieved but also half regretting her decision to escape his grasp.

InuYasha stared at the knobbed strip of wood that separated him from Kagome with a bemused expression. He lowered his gaze down to the hands that had caught her mere seconds ago. With a scowl he clenched his fists and looked away, his eyes unwittingly lighting upon the ramen cup the miko had tripped over. With a complimentary "Dammit" the silver-haired boy hurled it into the garbage can.

Kagome's thoughts were disoriented and aflutter as she perused her red face in the bathroom mirror while willing her heart to calm down. She felt embarrassed at her behavior, and yet confused at his actions. Didn't he love Kikyou? Hadn't he decided to keep his delirious promise to be dragged down to hell with her? Oh how she wished that it all were false, but just because she'd wished something hadn't ever made it happen. After many sighs and slumping of shoulders Kagome crept back to her room, hearing the carefree sounds of her mother's dinner party as she plied the hallway. She opened her door to find the hanyou asleep under the window that shielded her room from the torrential tempest.

Kagome didn't give it a second thought as she hopped into bed fully clothed. The last thing she saw was the clock announcing the time as 10:35 pm before her world disappeared, overtaken by slumber. She didn't see aureate eyes watching her for hours afterward as she wandered the land of dreams.


	2. Discomfort

Discomfort

InuYasha's already shallow sleep was curtailed when he awoke at dawn feeling greatly unsettled. Only when he looked over at Kagome's bed and spied her sleeping form did he remember why. He decided that she would feel better if he wasn't in the room when she woke up, and so left by way of the flimsy door thing that humans were so fond of using.

Once outside Kagome's room his mind became miraculously clear, or as clear as was possible with him, and the first thing to gain his attention was his stomach. After all, who could survive on a single bowl of ramen? Kagome's village should've watered whatever plant that ramen grew on a lot more, because those ramen bowls were wimpier than Kouga. InuYasha stepped gracefully to the staircase and took the whole thing in one leap, padding his way toward where he had a good idea Kagome stashed the ramen, but mostly following his nose.

He located the noodle cups easily, pulling out three and placing them on the table, prying the lids off effortlessly with his razor-sharp claws. It didn't take a genius to figure out how to work all the stuff in Kagome's time, and so he confidently searched the kitchen for the fire and the water. After much deliberation however, he concluded that Kagome's kitchen had run out of both, and was just about to go outside and get what he needed when a creaking on the stairs brought back his full attention.

One sniff told him Mrs. Higurashi was coming downstairs, and he contemplated running outside again for fear of an uncomfortable situation; it wasn't like she _liked_ him or anything. InuYasha suspected she probably disliked him for taking her daughter away down the well so often, and only tolerated him because Kagome did. By the time he had thought of this however, she had already spotted him, but she didn't look the least bit mortified.

"Good Morning InuYasha. What are you doing up so early?" She asked, ever-aware of his propensity to stay the night, then noticed the open ramen containers, "Oh, were you hungry?"

"Uh...yeah," InuYasha mumbled clumsily.

"I could pour you some cereal--ramen isn't really a breakfast food," At his dumbfounded look she waved that away. "I'll help you make the ramen, shall I?"

- - - -

Kagome sighed when she opened her eyes, feeling somewhat downhearted, though she couldn't remember as she looked around the room why that might have been.

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At least I woke up at a decent time today, She reasoned, feeling better. When she stood up however, she was immediately reminded of the previous day and InuYasha upon seeing the calendar, _Ugh._

She changed out of her day clothes from yesterday and into a pair of pink shorts and a plain sweater, then proceeded to toss her things into her trusty yellow backpack, assuming InuYasha would be hauling her through the well as soon as she found him, wherever he'd gotten off to. All the while she thought about the previous day, and wondered if she should try to apologize or at least talk to InuYasha about her behavior the night before. Finally, before leaving her room, she carefully slipped the necklace with the fragments of the Shikon jewel in a small bottle around her neck.

Kagome trundled to the stairs and was halfway down them when she stopped mid-step, listening to two familiar voices in the kitchen.

"--a silly thing to say InuYasha! I certainly don't hate you," Her mother was saying.

"You...you don't?"

Kagome noticed InuYasha's voice was slightly blocked, as if he were eating, _Ramen._

"Of course not. Why would you think such a thing?"

Kagome heard InuYasha shift uncomfortably, "You know...I'm always taking Kagome away from you guys down the well and away from her tests and junk."

"To be honest InuYasha, it doesn't bother me," Her mother told him warmly. "She's safe with you and her other friends so I don't worry, and I couldn't possibly ask her to not go; she's grown too attached to you all. Besides, she's made it to high school and she has good marks even after going through the well for nearly two years."

In the period of InuYasha's shocked silence that followed Kagome entered the kitchen, book bag in tow, immediately garnering the wide-eyed gaze of the hanyou. It only lasted a millisecond however, before he turned away with a huff.

__

Duh, Kagome sighed, unwilling to acknowledge her relief as she turned away from him as well, _he wants to pretend nothing happened last night._

She walked over to her mother, ignoring the feel of InuYasha's eyes on her as she sat down.

"Good morning Dear. Will you be going down the well again today?" Her mother patted her arm.

It was InuYasha's answer that came fastest, "Yep. That's the plan."

Kagome's mother turned to her as InuYasha gathered up the empty ramen containers, "It's been a nice visit. Have a good time, Kagome."

"I will Mom," She gave her mother a light hug before following InuYasha to the front door where she slipped on her shoes.

Kagome blinked as she slid the front door shut, absorbing the Shrine before her. The scene was more fresh and vibrant than she could remember it ever being. Everything was alive with the flavors of spring and drenched in water from the severe shower the night before. The sun sparkled on billions of glistening droplets rolling along the leaves and falling to the ground with bright splashes. As they made their way toward the well house InuYasha leapt up to swat the branches, sending droplets of water arcing over Kagome as she giggled, the morning sun creating prisms as it touched each bead of moisture.

"Mmm..." Kagome smiled as she breathed in the air, "It smells so nice out."

InuYasha smiled too, glancing at the girl as they passed the Goshinboku, "Too bad you can't try out my nose. You wouldn't believe some of the smells flying around here."

Kagome's grandfather was already up and about sweeping the steps. He hailed the couple as they past, "What are you up to Kagome?"

"Going through the well for a while! Bye Grandpa!" She said as she skipped after the hanyou, who jumped up every now and then to disturb another tree branch.

When InuYasha led Kagome into the well house both had sufficiently more water in their hair than a minute earlier. Kagome grasped the rough wooden edge of the Bone Eater's Well, staring into its ethereal depths. Only when InuYasha made a sound of impatience did she haul herself and her bag over the side and into the abyss wherein lay the world of youkai and jewel shards.

Kagome felt herself touch down on the other side of the well, relishing in all the sensations of the past that she had become so accustomed to. InuYasha appeared beside her, silently taking her yellow pack in his arms and jumping straight up and out of the well. Kagome followed at a crawl, climbing up the side.

As soon as she reached the top one clawed hand was offered for her to take, which she did, InuYasha pulling her out of the well easily and setting her on the earth beside her overly stuffed knapsack.

"Kagome!" A high-pitched screech of delight reached them, and InuYasha released her hand. Kagome beamed at the small fox demon cresting the hill, running toward them against the pink-tinged morning sky with an ecstatic look on his childish face.

InuYasha rolled his eyes as Shippou hopped into Kagome's arms and snuggled against her like a child would his mother, which was what she was to Shippou. The kitsune had grown significantly over the years, but was still the same frolicsome, imaginative, fluffy-tailed kit he'd always been.

InuYasha had grown as well. Kagome often pondered the changes he'd gone through since the first day they'd met when he'd attempted to slay her to get the jewel. He'd been truly cold back then, hardened by betrayal and ridicule and loneliness. Now however, she knew that his frigidity was only a cover up for the soft side he didn't want just anyone to see.

"Shippou! Shippou, where are you?" Miroku's smooth voice was accompanied by the jangling of his staff, causing the three heads by the well to turn in his direction as he traced Shippou's route toward them, "Kagome, you're back. My, it's good to see you looking so well."

InuYasha let loose a gravelly growl as the monk approached the group. Kagome looked down at herself, realizing that the reason Miroku was so glad to see her probably had more to do with her skimpy outfit than it did her health. Therefore when the monk stopped a good distance in front of them with his head bowed, not even groping her with his eyes much less his hands, she and her two demon companions were quite taken aback.

Having regained himself slightly, InuYasha bent to whisper in Kagome's ear, "Told you he was acting weirder than normal."

Kagome was in the middle of thinking this over when she caught a glimpse of Miroku's face, "Oh my God, what happened to you?"

Miroku seemed alarmed as he attempted to cover his face whilst pivoting away from them, "What? Nothing, absolutely nothing!"

"Shit!" InuYasha exclaimed after he'd taken a step forward and prized Miroku's hand from his face, only to take two steps back.

Miroku had acquired a handful of fairly fresh gashes across his face, and both eyes were swollen and bruised. His nose looked as if it had recently been bleeding. He was an all around train wreck.

"What the hell happened to _you_?" InuYasha asked uncertainly, "You didn't look like this when I went down the well!"

Kagome glanced at InuYasha, unsure what to make of the poor bruised monk shifting nervously on his sandaled feet, "When _did_ you leave? Miroku couldn't have just gotten extremely clumsy all of a sudden."

"Late morn--er--night! That's beside the point!" He replied edgily, not meeting her eyes.

Kagome was confused at InuYasha's answer, and she was thrown for another mental loop when Miroku completely overreacted to Shippou's innocent statement.

"Miroku, go wake up Sango! She'll want to see Kago--"

"Ah--No! I'm not going in _there_ again! If you want your head bitten off you go and wake her up!" He cried, his eyes widening in an ambivalent combination of horror and incredulity between the folds of black and blue skin.

With that the monk headed off toward the forest, revealing a few nasty bumps on the back of his head as he stalked away with a grimace carved into his mouth.

"You weren't kidding when you said he was acting weird. Sango too, from what Miroku says," Kagome breathed. "Maybe we should go check on--"

"Oh yeah, and end up like him? I like my head how it's shaped now, thanks," InuYasha remarked cynically.

Shippou jumped from Kagome's grasp, alighting on the hanyou's shoulder, "It's okay, you're safe. She's only picking on Miroku," He then added with a giddy smile and a sideways glance at InuYasha, "Give you three guesses why."

"I think 'picking on' is an understatement." Kagome contradicted, her eyes following the progress of the limping Houshi into the trees, not at all surprised when she heard Shippou's frightened wail at being tossed from the hanyou's good graces.

"InuYasha! Why'd you do that?" Shippou piped from his seat on the ground, rubbing his sore bottom.

"Keh!" Was InuYasha's only reply. "Well, if Sango's not going to murder us then let's go see if we can get some intelligible answers out of her."

Upon reaching Kaede's hut their eyes immediately found a sleeping Kirara curled up against the backdrop of the door flap. Her deep red eyes cracked open, running apathetically over Kagome and Shippou, but when she spotted InuYasha she gave a conspiratorial hiss and leapt toward him in a flash of adorably sharp claws and miniscule teeth.

"What the hell--Kirara!" InuYasha said as he caught the tiny cat demon in his claws, holding her at arm's length as she swiped at him furiously.

"It's alright, Kirara," Came Sango's exasperated voice. "You can let them in so long as the Houshi's not with them."

Kirara ceased her assault on the hanyou with almost humorous celerity, rubbing against his arms and purring in what seemed to be apology. InuYasha placed the two-tailed cat gently on the ground and followed Kagome and Shippou through he door.

The kit hopped to Sango's side joyously, "Sango! Kagome's back! Are you feeling better?"

Sango looked up at Kagome with a tired smile, "Better than yesterday."

Kagome was about to start asking Sango about her and Miroku's trip to her former village when her ears picked up InuYasha's barely breathed words.

"No way," He said, his gaze fixed on Sango, probably not realizing he'd been speaking out loud.

"What is it, InuYasha?" Kagome asked, glancing between the hanyou and the taijiya, whose face took on a tenebrous frown. Shippou's intense gaze kept moving between the three adults expectantly.

InuYasha seemed to rise up out of a deep chasm of thought, "Uh...I'm gonna go find Miroku."

He twisted abruptly and left the hut, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

"Oh no...," Sango sighed, wringing her hands in her blanket, drawing Kagome's gaze away from the door with her quietly uttered lament.

"Sango...what's going on? Is something wrong?"

The demon-slayer met her gaze balefully, "Yes...and no."

"I'll go get you some water Sango," Shippou chirped. "You look thirsty."

Sango smiled, "Thank you Shippou."

As Shippou bounced past the door flap Kagome knelt down at Sango's side, concerned and yet confused, "Did something happen while you and Miroku were away?"

Sango's eyes danced away from Kagome's gaze as the slayer continued to fill the role of tergiversator, "Well...I suppose. It's...I mean, that is, we only just arrived back yesterday and..."

Sango's mouth opened and closed as she struggled to find words, giving Kagome the feeling that she wasn't at all comfortable with telling her what had happened. At that precise moment Kirara sauntered through the door lazily, diverting their attention from the delicate matter at hand. Sango reached out to stroke her creamy fur gratefully, a purr effervescing from deep within the cat's chest. Kagome stood up to leave.

"Kagome?"

"I'm just going to go look for InuYasha. I'll be back before long," With a lively step she exited the hut, only to slump her shoulders as she passed Shippou, who wobbled precariously as he carried water back the way she'd come, heading toward the forest in hopes of finding Miroku, InuYasha, and some answers.

- - - -

InuYasha flew over the canopy in great bounding leaps, the afternoon sun beating down on his now dry locks. The air lashed at his skin as he scanned the forest below, searching out the scent of the monk with a new determination. He sighted him in less than two minutes, finding the purple-robed Houshi sulking beside a shallow stream. The hanyou let gravity take him down, landing far enough away so that the monk wouldn't notice him, but close enough to remain a cautious observer.

He squinted his eyes at the afflicted expression his depraved friend wore, as if he were battling with his very essence. Even without the multiple bruises and cuts InuYasha had rarely seen the monk's wontedly temperate visage so distrait and riddled with consternation. InuYasha couldn't tear his eyes away as the monk brought the hand that was cursed with the kazaana in front of his face, staring into it dismally.

InuYasha decided that now was as good a time as any to barge in on his thoughts, "Hey, monk."

Miroku started, "Hey, InuYasha." His gaze floundered apprehensively.

Now that InuYasha knew why the monk was acting so strangely, he didn't quite know where to start. He was sure that he had intended for it to be kept a secret, or at least to not tell anyone until he was ready. But now that InuYasha had found out...how could he tell his friend that he knew he'd gotten Sango pregnant?

Well, there was no comfortable way to do it, so he chose the easy route, "Look, I know that Sango's--"

"Gah!" Miroku cut him off with an undignified squawk, successfully baffling InuYasha as he clutched at the short strands of his black hair, "S-She told you?"

InuYasha dared a step closer the not-so-holy man, "No. I scented it." When Miroku made no motion to say anything InuYasha continued, "I thought you two were acting weird yesterday. I was wondering why Sango kept avoiding me; probably knew I'd find out if she got too close."

Miroku's body seemed to wilt as he sighed and slumped over, his elbows on his knees and his hands on his bloodied cheeks, "She's furious at me. She has a right to be, of course. This is all my fault."

InuYasha felt truly sorry for the poor guy, and he showed it by taking a seat by the stream next to the languidly decrepit creature formerly known as Miroku, who didn't acknowledge the movement, but continued watching the eddies and ripples of the water in the miniature valley.

"So...when did it happen?" InuYasha asked quietly, feigning nonchalance.

Miroku sighed, one of many that day, "On the waxing half moon, the night after we left Kaede's village."

InuYasha cast a subtle glance at him before gingerly voicing the question, "Was it--"

"Nice?" Miroku finished for him, sighing once more, but before he replied his face took on a disquietingly contemptuous shade, "There will never be anything as nice in this life or the next."

Miroku's disappointed attitude confused InuYasha; that monk was the one asking every female he met to bear his children. He'd always been very taken with Sango, and now he knew just how taken Sango was with him--unless he'd forced himself on Sango. It did seem very _Miroku_, but even as InuYasha scowled he knew it wasn't true. The monk cared too much for her, and even if he didn't, he wasn't nearly beat up enough to have forced anything on the taijiya.

"What are you moping around for Miroku? You finally went as far as you can go with Sango and you're sitting around looking like the world is about to end."

"Perhaps," Miroku's voice was dark, "it is the end of my world...or nearing the end at least."

InuYasha blinked.

"And now," He tilted his head skyward, clearly distraught, "I am responsible for another cursed existence. I have paralleled the fate of my burden with another unfortunate soul's life--two unfortunate souls."

InuYasha watched as Miroku stared at his kazaana distractedly, then all of a sudden turned his dark blue gaze on the hanyou, "InuYasha...have you and Kagome...," The monk's eyes glittered with the unstated question.

InuYasha's cheeks heated up at the unexpected question, and the realization that his face was probably as red as a beet only served to ruddy it more, "No! I mean...I uh..."

__

Where does he get off asking me this stuff? How could he possibly know about anything going on between Kagome and me? I_ don't even know if there's anything between us. I want there to be..._

"Keh! If we had, it'd be none of _your_ business, monk."

The monk eyed him with something that could have been jealousy, but it evaporated all too soon. "Okay then. Since it is none of my business, then if you'll leave me be and deliver a message to Sango for me?"

InuYasha hid his arms beneath his crimson sleeves and stood up, "Yeah, yeah, what is it?"

The monk paused, "Tell her that I am sincere in my shame, and I hope she can at least permit me to come and see her sometime soon."

InuYasha grumbled and rolled his eyes as he readied for departure, "I still can't believe you got Sango pregnant."

No sooner had the words left his lips than his ears twitched, swiveling toward a sound off to his right. It had sounded almost like a hiccup. InuYasha turned to face the clump of suspect bushes.

"Uh oh," Came the soft voice he'd recognize anywhere, just before he spotted two brown eyes peeking up at him through the leaves.

"Kagome?" _How much did she hear?_

Kagome stood up tremulously, facing the shell-shocked hanyou and despairing Houshi, "Did you just--Sango's pregnant?"

InuYasha could only stand there dumbly and wait for Miroku to supply the obvious answer, which he did, "I'm afraid it is true Kagome. I have adulterated her."

The schoolgirl's hand flew to her mouth, her eyes as wide as dinner plates, "You...and Sango?"

Miroku sighed and nodded haggardly.

InuYasha could only try desperately to win the battle against the angry blush that so wanted to steal across his entire face and at the same time try to get over the shock of Kagome sneaking up on him. Mercifully, her eyes stayed on the Houshi.

"Miroku," Kagome said tearfully, "You should go talk with her! I'm sure she wants to talk with you just as badly."

Miroku grimaced, "I've proof enough of the mendaciousness of that statement on my face alone."

Kagome swept past InuYasha to kneel at the monk's side, peeking up into the face that presently looked more calamitous than ever it had.

"Miroku, you can't give up on her--she needs you. You and her are in this together and you have to deal with it now, even if it's uncomfortable...or a little scary."

Miroku looked down at her, the dampened spirit within him less apparent with every ounce of respect for the girl before him that grew behind his gaze. As the monk turned his vision back toward the village InuYasha found himself in awe of the affects a few of Kagome's simple words could have on others.

"You're right, Kagome. Of course you're right," He pulled himself up by his staff, throwing his weight against it as he made the first few steps away from the brook, slowly furthering from the inuhanyou and the miko.

Kagome watched him disappear, then let her body fall into a sitting position, her feet dangling near the cool water. InuYasha approached her warily, not entirely sure of himself as he stood beside her. Kagome didn't speak, but the expressions on her face were enough as it was. Confusion, indecision, amazement, each one fought for dominance over her pulchritudinous features.

InuYasha broke the verbal silence, "Now it'll take twice as long to defeat Naraku, what with Sango carrying around mini-Miroku and all."

She looked up at him with a funny smirk, "And how do you know the baby isn't a mini-Sango?"

He plopped down beside her on the bank, "Well, if it was a girl, just about every female on the planet would have her to thank for their preserved chastity."

Kagome smiled, staring into the stream, "I guess...Miroku and Sango will be getting married soon, huh?"

InuYasha couldn't answer right away. Married? He hadn't even thought of that. Kikyou had told him that they would be married once upon a time, but he wasn't all too familiar with the concept as it was. He supposed it was some agreement between the man and the woman that they would both take care of the child, or perhaps a vow of love. It certainly couldn't have been as bonding as the demon ceremony of taking mates for life, and till death they were together.

Kagome was babbling when he came to, "But I guess Miroku won't be allowed to be a monk anymore, will he? I don't see how he was ever a monk in the first place but..." She giggled, her gaze tracing over InuYasha fondly, making his heart squeeze. Did she know what her eyes alone did to him?

Their attentions were drawn toward the village for a second at the distant cry of 'Hiraikotsu' and the strangled expletive from the Houshi.

"Keh...maybe she won't hinder us so much after all," InuYasha growled beneath his grin.

He looked back at Kagome when he noticed her staring at him, but she only tilted her chin down and kept on staring into her lap when his head switched to her. Her small hands kneaded together nervously, as if she were contemplating some course of action to take but was not quite sure of it.

"Kagome?" InuYasha said softly. He had the urge to extend a hand and brush her bangs from her face, if only to glimpse the sparkle in her eyes, but he reined it in, knowing full well her reaction would only be one of discomfort.

"InuYasha," She began, lifting her eyes every once in a while as she spoke, "There's something I want to ask you."

"Okay," He replied, a wondrous feeling blooming within him, though he knew not why.

Her voice started off shaky, but slowly gained in strength, "I was thinking, if you're interested, there's this dance at my school, and maybe you'd like to go with me? It's on the night of the next new moon, so you'd blend in with everyone in your human form."

"Dance?" InuYasha's tone was incredulous.

Kagome stiffened. He forced himself to think quickly. If nothing else, he could tell this dance thing was important to her, but how to tell her 'no' without hurting her? He thought hard on this for a moment before reaching the conclusion that such a feat was impossible.

"Um...alright." On a whim he decided to elaborate, "You have my word, but--"

The bright smile that lit up the girl's face followed by her arms being thrown around him strangled the lectures about dances being wastes of time in his throat. He wasn't sure if he was happy or afraid when her hold didn't loosen, but he subconsciously brought one clawed hand to rest on her back. At least she wasn't running away from him like the night before. It may have been his imagination, but the feeling she gave him as she squeezed him in her hug was well-nigh apologetic.

"I'm glad, InuYasha," Her voice was muffled as she spoke into his haori, but soon enough she pulled far enough away from him to look him in the face, pink inhabiting the apples of her cheeks. He wondered if there was some sort of catch to this 'dance' celebration that she hadn't let on to.

He didn't much care at the time however, what with Kagome being so close to him. To be close to her...that was all he wanted. He never really thought about anything else when he was alone with her, did he? Just as he was about to speak again she took him unawares, scooping up a handful of cool water from the stream and throwing it right into his face. He sputtered and coughed as she giggled, scooting out of the perceived retaliation range.

__

She should've known better, He thought, dashing forward sprier than she could comprehend and throwing her over his shoulder, heading toward the stream.

"InuYasha!" She protested, still laughing as he waded into the water, "You can't just--! I would say 'you know what'!"

InuYasha snorted, "Yeah right! You'd go down with me!"

"Not if I was already in the water!" The girl retorted, attempting to kick him.

"Hey! If you do that you're gonna fall in!"

"Aren't you going to drench me anyway?" She replied sweetly.

"Keh...I guess you don't deserve that much." And with that he hauled her off his shoulder and set her down gently and somewhat reluctantly into the water, only causing a small squeak of discomfort to escape her. InuYasha surveyed the girl below him, fully aware of how easily it would be for him to bend down and brush his lips against hers, but also that he couldn't see that action through at the moment.

She wiggled her toes in the water as she stood before him, smiling shyly. She shivered only minimally, "We should go find Kaede or something--see if she has anything to tell us."

"Feh."

He turned around wordlessly, signaling for her to climb onto his back. As soon as he felt her soft weight against him he leapt into the air, skimming the sun streaked forest as they made their way toward the village. For all the time they'd been friends--longer than he'd ever been friends with anyone--he'd always wondered why he felt so at home with her on his back, where he could surely protect her from any and all harm. At that moment a twinge of understanding seeped through him, letting him step into Miroku's sandals for the barest second. If Kagome accepted him--accepted his feelings--did she really know how fierce of an anathema the love of a hanyou was?


	3. Girl Time: Interrupted

Girl Time: Interrupted

Kagome swiped her brow as her knees hit the dirt and she reached down with her sweaty hand to yank the herb from the earth. A whole night had passed since she'd built up the courage to ask InuYasha to the White Day Dance, and since then she'd gone through many different stages. There was hope, extreme giddiness, even a little insanity, then a fair amount of denial, nervous anxiety, and dread. In the end she'd just shoved all the feelings off her plate and went out to pick herbs for Sango as Kaede had requested, now that her and Miroku's little bundle of joy was out of the bag.

Kagome felt almost dazed as she thought about Sango being pregnant. Her friends had grown so much over all the time they'd been together. Had that much time really past? It didn't seem like it, but she knew it had. And now Sango, who was practically her sister, would be starting a family.

Kagome removed the herb from the soil and placed it safely in her basket. The sun hung over the forest of InuYasha, rising higher above the verdant cap of the woods. The young miko had to squint her eyes if she wanted to catch a possible glimpse of red and silver over the menagerie of trees, but there was no sign of anything. Kagome sighed.

She hadn't been able to stop her recent flood of thoughts, no matter how much effort she put into ignoring them. The smallest wondering questions kept resurfacing: What would it be like to start a family with InuYasha? Would it even be possible? With him, a demon of the past, and she, a miko of the future.

Kagome slapped her hands to her rosy cheeks, _What am I thinking? InuYasha and me? Oh, if he could hear my thoughts right now he'd--_

What would he do? With a lurch of fear and amazement she recalled what she had overheard the previous day, when Miroku asked InuYasha about their relationship.

"'None of his business'?" Kagome whispered to herself, completely bewildered, "Whatever that means." She blinked her eyes in the bright sunlight, gathering up the special herbs and starting back toward Kaede's hut, "If only I were brave enough to ask him."

The ebony-haired miko stepped as quickly as she could toward the outline of the village. She shifted her eyes about inconspicuously, multitasking at getting to Kaede's hut and finding the whereabouts of InuYasha. Something told her he wasn't far off as she neared the hut, subtly searching the entirety of the roof for a certain hanyou in the process, of course.

Kagome gasped when her view was obstructed by red hinezumi robes, bringing along a figure to light upon the ground with them. She clutched her herb basket in a death grip, for she had nearly dropped it, and backpedaled enough to look up into a familiar face framed with wild silver hair.

"Jeez, don't sneak up on me like that," Kagome breathed, one hand over her heart.

InuYasha looked her up and down, "What have you been doing?"

Kagome blushed a bit under his scrutiny, then looked down at herself. Her T-shirt sleeves were rolled up to her shoulders and her knees, revealed by her shorts, were swollen and dirt-encrusted. She indicated the basket in her grasp as she replied, "I was gathering herbs for Sango."

InuYasha snorted, "Right. Speaking of Sango, she needs to wake her ass the fuck up because we've got some jewel shards to find."

Kagome glared, "We may have been planning to go off hunting yesterday, but that was before we found out about Sango's...condition."

"I thought you said her being pregnant wouldn't slow us down? What do you call _sitting here doing nothing _then?" InuYasha yelled at her, his amber eyes blazing into her own inches away.

"I never said that!"

InuYasha crossed his arms, "Feh. Then it was Miroku or Sango."

"They never said anything of that sort either." The girl informed him, reining in her temper.

He was backed into a corner, "Well--her carrying a pup _shouldn't_ slow us down anyhow!"

Kagome wiped her sweaty brow with the back of her hand and sighed as he looked away from her, his expression irritable, "Aren't you hot in that?"

The still pouting hanyou glanced down at his thick haori, drawing himself up, "Keh! You ain't seen hot, wench. Just wait till the sun is directly overhead."

She found his nonchalance unconvincing as she deliberately glowered at the perspiration on his face. He seemed to sense her doubt.

"I'm hanyou! I can handle the heat," He poked himself in the chest with a clawed thumb.

"Oh yeah? I seem to remember a certain hanyou who couldn't handle a bath that was _too hot_," She smirked.

InuYasha sputtered, then blushed, and suddenly Kagome felt rather uncomfortable as well. She was relieved when he changed the subject, even though she knew it was just a ploy to hide his embarrassment.

"Feh--you shouldn't be out slaving over herbs in this weather. Kami knows you humans are weak," His gaze was averted and one hand hooked around his nape.

"I'm fine, InuYasha. Do you think picking herbs is a greater task than battling--?"

She was cut off by InuYasha sniffing then glancing to the side. She followed his gaze and saw the Houshi approaching them warily. Kagome wondered at the brief yet contentious gander the two men shared before InuYasha turned away with a snort and Miroku clasped pleading eyes on her.

Kagome spoke to him with concern, "What's wrong Miroku? Have you and Sango still not made up?"

He gave an affirmative, "Kagome, if you would be so kind...do you think you could convince Sango to speak with me?"

Kagome winced slightly; his beaten and battered face was even more pitiful than it usually was when he was begging, "Miroku...I can talk to her but I can't tell her what to do--Ah!"

She squeaked in surprise as Miroku pulled her into a back-breaking hug, his thank-yous reiterating themselves in her ear with the backdrop of InuYasha's throaty growl.

"You've already caused enough trouble, lecher," She heard InuYasha snarl as Miroku was torn off of her.

Miroku's laudations of gratitude were truncated when InuYasha grabbed him by his collar and dragged him off to do whatever it was the guys did, leaving Kagome free to deliver the promised herbs.

Upon stepping into the hut she nearly ran into Kaede, who seemed to be heading out, "Ah--Sorry Kaede!" She appeased as she steadied herself and the old miko.

"Give it no thought, child. I was merely about to go and fetch ye."

Kagome smiled at the affectionate term. 'Child'_...I haven't felt like a child since before I was pulled through the well. How much more growing up could I possibly have to do after all I've been through here?_

Kagome produced the herbs from the woven basket at her side, "Here, all the ingredients you needed."

Kaede relieved her of the herbs and left Kagome at the door in favor of the deeper parts of the cave-like hut. It was dark and cool on such a hot day, even with the cooking fire that flickered below a pot of water. The windows were all shaded, probably in order for Sango to rest, but at that moment the taijiya's eyes fluttered open, followed by a series of stretches and yawns as Kaede bustled around the fire concocting her herbal remedy with an alacrity born of her seniority. Kagome watched the members of the hut from the doorway contentedly, Kirara the only other occupant besides Kaede and Sango. The fire-cat purred against Sango's stomach as she rose from her bed, shaking off the last lingering vestiges of slumber.

"Kagome, how are you?"

The miko laughed humorlessly and flew to her side on the floor, "Forget about me silly. How are you?"

Sango rubbed her eyes, "I feel good today. I think the sickness has finally decided to give me a break...for now."

Kagome reached out to stroke her friend's shoulder gently, "Sango...you know, we need to talk."

Each woman stared into the other's eyes, Sango finally nodding just before Kaede bent down beside them, pressing the potion into Sango's grasp, "Ye must take this if ye wish to keep the babe healthy."

Sango smiled gratefully up at the kind, wrinkled face of the village miko, continuing to meet Kagome's gaze as she gingerly sipped from the bowl, downing the mint-smelling brew without the barest complaint.

"What does this potion do Kaede?" Kagome queried.

The old woman answered sapiently, "When mixed correctly, yon herbs provide for the mother and child what meals alone cannot, lowering the risk of birth problems."

When Sango was finished and had busied herself with petting Kirara, Kagome sat up strait and announced, "How would it be if you and I were to go take a refreshing bath in the lake?"

When Sango gave an enthusiastic nod Kagome sprang from the floor and went to the corner, digging through her yellow bag for a fresh pair of clothes and her personal toiletries, most of which she didn't mind sharing with Sango. She couldn't keep the pep out of her step as they made their way to the small basin of water beyond an alcove of the forest with Kaede's blessing. More than Kagome felt she really needed to bathe, she was anxious to have some much-needed girl talk with her best female friend.

After scraping their surroundings spotless with their eyes they promptly shed their outer and inner garments and dove into the plenteous water, a cool reprieve from the hotter weather of the early spring season. The two played around in the water like old times, making their way under the miniature waterfall to souse their thirsty mats of dark hair and wash them clean with the modern gifts of shampoo that Kagome brought with her across time. After the high of being in their own little paradise of water had worn off, the two found a spot to relax in the shallow end and soak in the water as each waited for their friend to break the silence.

Kagome spoke first, the brightness evident in her rapidly blinking eyes, "It's amazing--you're going to be a mother Sango."

The demon-slayer brought a hand to her bare stomach beneath the water, "I'm sorry I couldn't bring myself to tell you Kagome," Her voice wavered shamefully, "I'm just so..."

"Confused?"

Sango sighed, "Badly."

Kagome offered her a succoring smile, "So...Miroku's the father."

Sango nodded, kicking her feet below the surface of the lake.

Kagome pressed on, knowing Sango wanted to talk about it--had to talk about it--even if it was uncomfortable, "You really should talk to him about this. Miroku just wants to work things out, and I know you do too."

Sango's countenance stormed over, "He has not given me any reason to believe he's worthy of my talking to him as of yet."

__

Not keeping in mind that Hiraikotsu prevents him from getting near enough to give you anything, Kagome thought saturninely.

She decided a quick change of subject would be best, "Why now?"

The taijiya blinked at the oddity of the question, "Kagome?"

"I mean," She amended, "I know you too have liked each other since forever. Have you wanted to--that is--be with Miroku...all this time? Were you waiting just because of the jewel shards or Naraku or...?" Kagome trailed off at her friend's comprehension.

"Yes, but I really didn't plan on something like this happening so soon to be honest. My heart had its own reasons, I suppose."

"Then...you love Miroku." Kagome intuited.

Sango seemed taken unawares at first, but answered levelly, a far away look in her eyes, "I do."

Kagome felt the utter truth behind the words, but although the statement was free of any doubt it was tainted with something else: guilt?

"How did you know you were pregnant? Did you use some kind of feudal pregnancy test?" Kagome immediately registered Sango's dumbfounded look, "Er...it's a thing women in my time use to tell if they are...pregnant."

Sango held her abdomen once more. "I think I just knew. I knew it was a possibility before it even happened, and when it did I just felt it--so did the Houshi somehow. He told me so before we started back to the village. I felt it even more when I began throwing up every left turn," She scowled lightly, as if she wished to be more resentful of her condition but wasn't capable of it.

"Do you want to have a girl?" Kagome piped, "Or a boy? Or twins?"

Sango giggled. "Oh, I don't much care--but a boy would be nice," She said wistfully, eyes glazed over in the reality of the dream.

Kagome's face suddenly turned mischievous. Blushing, she softly voiced a question she had been mulling over, "What was it like?"

Sango caught the miko's meaning instantly. Blushing crimson as well, she shared a devious look with the girl beside her who was practically her sister. She sighed, a sentimental look on her face, as if she couldn't put words to it.

"It was...it," She shook her head a bit, "In truth? It was...horrible."

She looked up from the water to behold a stunned Kagome, and continued, "It was vile, it was deceitful, it was painful--" She ended with a shaky sigh.

Kagome brought her hand up to her cheek thoughtfully, "Sango? I thought you said you loved him just a minute ago."

"I know, but just because I love him doesn't mean I wanted to do--_that_--with him," She spat, glaring at the rocks. "It's just--that fool was being so--so _sweet_. He made me forget all about his being a dirty lech! You should've heard him..."

Kagome thought Sango could've been growling. She smiled at her friend, sagely observing the flames of love she felt for the monk dancing in Sango's eyes even as she scorned and cursed him. Kagome felt a small prick against her mind, a nagging weight poking sharply at her...a reminder of her inadequacy.

Kagome's fingers caressed the bottle of jewel shards around her neck as she only half-quipped, "I feel like such a child."

Kagome knew her friend would hear the seriousness hidden in her tone, and that she did, "Kagome, don't think that. You're no more a child than I am. Being with a man or giving birth can't--doesn't--make you a woman. Open your eyes! You've taken care of your own child for the better part of two years. You're practically Shippou's mother."

Kagome had to fight back tears at the kind sincerity in her friend's words, but it didn't work. Tears slid down her cheeks as she nodded her thanks to her friend. Even as her heart buoyed up from its dark depths however, she couldn't prevent one last insecurity from flying off of her lips.

"I haven't even really kissed a boy yet," Her cheeks pinked as she shooed away her tears.

Sango ignored the proclamation, her smile wry, "You mean that--you haven't kissed InuYasha yet?"

Kagome couldn't control the foreordained flush of her entire face as she squeaked, "No."

Sango looked surprised, but only for a hot second before she became logical once more, "I know that you have feelings for him Kagome, but I can't tell you what to do with them. I know there are as many, most likely more, things standing in the way of your and InuYasha's relationship than mine and...Houshi-sama's."

Kagome took a deep breath, "Yeah. I just don't know which path to take. Sometimes I--I'm just so afraid of my own feelings that I...I--"

Sango furnished her a reassuring smile, "Maybe you and he just need some time alone. That's all it took for the Houshi and I."

Kagome grinned, excited yet chagrined at the thought, "Oh, Sango, I don't know."

"You love him, don't you?"

"I--yes."

"I think it would be a great ide--" Sango stopped all of a sudden, her eyes going fearfully wide, causing Kagome heart to race as the taijiya turned slightly.

"There's nowhere to run! Show yourself!" She shouted at an eerily rustling bush not far away from where they were relaxing, their clothes on the opposite bank.

Both girls let out the breaths they'd been holding when Shippou's cute face popped out looking mildly confused.

"Thank Kami it's only you, Shippou," Kagome sighed. "The guys aren't anywhere near here, are they?"

Shippou cottoned on quickly, "Miroku and InuYasha?" He sniffed the air with his wee youkai nose cautiously, "Nope. Hey Kagome, want to see the new move I've been practicing?"

She beamed at the excitement on his precious face, fangs peaking out from within his mouth. Kagome's decline stopped on her lips when Shippou's eyes moved quizzically toward a spot higher up and behind the miko and the demon-slayer.

"Kagome--what's that?"

The girls' heads whipped around, locking onto the figures of two men crouched in the brush at the tip of a cliff overhanging the lake. When the parties' eyes met Kagome and Sango attempted to cover themselves as the men, who appeared to be human, stood up to flee.

"I don't recognize them from the village," Shippou's voice came uncertainly.

"They're Samurai!" Kagome told Sango, her breath rippling the water, when she sighted the voyeurs' clothing.

Sango's eyes narrowed, "Those are no Samurai--thieves more like."

Kagome gave Sango a questioning glance as they heard the sound of one of the men tripping, then scrambling to get back on his feet.

"They probably attacked some Samurai and stripped their vestment," With that Sango began to wade toward the opposite bank as fast as she could, "I for one won't permit them to escape!"

Kagome followed her friend ashore, trying to make her see reason while pulling on her towel, "Sango, we can't go after them. We don't have our weapons and if they are thieves there could be more of them!"

Sango tore her concentration away from pulling on her taijiya armor to ponder Kagome's ratiocination, reluctantly caving in.

She watched as Sango resignedly contented herself with staring after the retreating 'Samurai' and muttering dark curses. Kagome supposed it was as good a time as any to end their bath as she donned her own clothes.

"I'll go after them, Kagome!" Shippou enthused, bouncing onto her shoulder. "I can take them out!"

"That's okay Shippou, but we should get out of here incase they decide to come back," Kagome said, pulling on the final article of clothing.

"Shippou, you can show us that new tactic once we get closer to the village," Sango assured the kit, corralling her damp strands of hair into her white ribbon with a flourish.

The girls swiftly backtracked their way to the village, Sango in her sandals and Kagome in bare feet, her lack of footwear merited by the equal lack of recent travel. Once they were within sight of the village the girls sat down on the green hilltop to oblige Shippou by playing his audience.

"Now watch as I use my fox magic to defeat my enemies!" Shippou exclaimed, bouncing onto a small stump to the fore of where they were seated. Sango and Kagome pretended not to notice as he surreptitiously retrieved a small rock and a leaf from his pocket and tossed both to the ground, the leaf hitting the stone in a brilliant shower of blue.

The girls opened the eyes which they had quickly shut against the sudden brightness, prepared for anything, but all they saw was a confused Shippou standing in front of a leaf and a rock.

The kitsune pulled a cheerless face, "I don't get it. It worked last time!"

Kagome tried to placate him, "It's okay Shippou--"

But the little kit was already trying again. Taking out a stick and a leaf, he tossed them off toward the forest, this time only producing a small burst of blue light. The same thing happened again and once more as he took pebbles and twigs and threw them in all directions, the leaves hitting them and doing nothing more that creating a fugacious coruscation. The girls became even more nonplussed when Shippou threw an acorn chased by a leaf exactly where InuYasha was emerging from a copse of trees, now missing his haori.

"Hey, what's the big idea runt?" InuYasha shouted as the acorn bounced off his chin and the leaf hit him square on the forehead.

Another burst of blue light flared from behind InuYasha, and his expression changed from indignation to mingled trepidation and disbelief as he turned around.

There for all to see, clearly protruding from the seat of his hakama, was a long, silvery white dog tail to match his hair. The hilltop was silent for all of half a second until Shippou yelled 'Ta-da!' and Kagome and Sango erupted into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

"What the fuck?" InuYasha bellowed in a conniption, lunging toward the kitsune.

Shippou, sensing impending doom, threw himself at the two girls who were presently incapacitated by giggles. Kagome paused just long enough, however, to shout out the command 'Osuwari' when InuYasha was mere feet away from them. He was pulled to the ground face first by his enchanted prayer beads, and at the sight of the fluffy tail the girls fell back into hysterical laughter once more, Shippou joining them as he continued to use Kagome as a shield from the now tailed hanyou's legendary ire.

The said hanyou lifted his head up from the dirt, his fangs bared and his face positively livid, "This isn't funny!"

His friends only laughed harder, making any words they might have spoken incomprehensible.

InuYasha's new tail flicked angrily, and he immediately grasped it, halting its movements, "Shippou, get this damn thing off of me before I--!"

"Come on InuYasha, can't you take a joke?" Kagome choked out, then looked at the tail and was taken over by giggles anew.

InuYasha made a mad grab for the fox, failing when the kit ducked behind his shield to continue laughing. By this time InuYasha's cheeks were tinged pink, but his anger had not vacillated. By the time he got himself standing, hiding the tail from view, Kagome had regained herself enough to try to mollify him as she clutched Shippou to her chest.

"Now, Shippou, make InuYasha's tail go away," Kagome ordered, attempting to keep a straight face for the sake of the still blushing and fuming dog demon.

"Aw, but we were having so much fun," The kit pouted, but complied and pulled out a leaf, warily approaching InuYasha and placing it on the tail.

InuYasha blinked as the tail evanesced, leaving only a hole that revealed his inner yukata to remind him of it. He quickly got over his embarrassment as he captured Shippou and commenced smashing him on the head.

"InuYasha!" Kagome and Sango yelled in unison, and InuYasha finally let Shippou go after no less than thirty punches.

"Osuwari!" Kagome screeched, and once again InuYasha found himself eating dirt as an injured Shippou cuddled his surrogate mother.

InuYasha's rumbling growls reached them and Sango shook her head, "I'm going back to Kaede's hut. It's far too hot out to be standing around outside, and she'll probably have the midday meal prepared."

"I'm going with Sango," Shippou announced, sending a final glare InuYasha's way before hopping onto Sango's shoulder as she retreated to the village. Kagome could've sworn she saw the taijiya give her a small wink before turning and walking onward.

When Kagome looked back at InuYasha she saw he was sitting, his eyes closed and his jaw clenched, claws rapping on the ground in annoyance.

She sat down before him, "Cheer up, InuYasha. Shippou was just having fun."

"Oh yeah? Next time _you_ can try out the tail, then tell me if it's still fun," He spat.

Kagome tried not to break into laughter all over again, instead focusing her attention on something else, "The heat finally got to you, eh?"

He glanced at his white undershirt, "Feh."

Kagome couldn't help but smile, and she added on an inspiration, "That tail didn't look half bad on you."

He looked at her with surprise, the blush returning to his cheeks before he fastidiously averted his eyes.

At that moment it dawned on her that she had been left alone with him on purpose, and she recalled what Sango had suggested not much earlier with a tiny blush of her own.

__

'Maybe you and he just need some time alone. That's all it took for the Houshi and I.'

Kagome's spine straitened as she looked away from InuYasha as well, suddenly loosing her composure at being alone with her best friend of almost two years.

__

Stop being stupid Kagome! You're alone with him all the time! It's no big deal!

She nearly jumped out of her skin when InuYasha spoke to her, "Kagome, did you convince Sango to talk with Miroku?"

Kagome latched onto the subject with pleasure, grateful for something to converse about that wouldn't make her blush like a school girl with a crush, "No, I tried to get through to her, but she wasn't hearing it. She said he hasn't done anything to make him worthy of talking to."

InuYasha rolled his eyes, "Feh, she's too busy pulverizing him to notice if he proved his worth fiftyfold."

Kagome giggled. It was practically the exact same thing she'd thought.

"So?"

Kagome met his gaze, "So what?"

"What are we going to do about them? They can't be pussyfooting around each other when we're on a shard hunt! We're going to have to force them to talk," InuYasha grinned mischievously.

Kagome was skeptical, "That sounds like a death wish on Miroku. Are you two fighting, or what?"

InuYasha lowered, "I got nothin' to say to that bouzu."

__

Hmm, so they aren't on the best of terms. Don't tell me he's jealous of Miroku.

Kagome frowned at him, "So the only reason you want to help them make up is because you're worried they'll hamper us? You don't even care about your friends?"

"I never said that!"

Kagome huffed, "Just glad to clear that up."

InuYasha looked up at the sun with a formidable expression. It had now passed the center of the sky and was gradually sinking into the west.

Kagome had an idea, "I know! We can get some flowers and leave them for Sango, then make her think they're from Miroku!"

InuYasha didn't seem opposed to the proposition and agreed, "Yeah, okay. So what flowers should we get?"

"Pretty ones."

"Don't be too specific," InuYasha muttered sardonically.

"But...how are we going to get them to her without her knowing they're from us?"

InuYasha tapped his fingers on the earth, "I'll go pick the flowers while you go down to the hut and distract Sango. While you two are out I'll put the flowers on her futon and leave, then come back after you both go back inside."

Kagome nodded in approval, "Alright, as long as we don't run into Miroku."

"You won't," InuYasha assured her, helping her up along with him, "I saw him go off to sulk somewhere. He probably won't be back to the village until tonight, but Sango doesn't have to know that."

With the plan set in place Kagome sprinted back to the village, pulling Sango away from her miso soup and informing her of an imagined villager who'd heard rumors about thieves killing Samurai and stealing their armor. They searched for the nonexistent tipster until Sango was good and nettled, then headed back to Kaede's hut to finish eating.

Upon entering the empty hut they both observed a bouquet's presence, Kagome silently congratulating InuYasha on his choice of flowers as she wandered toward the cooking fire to get a bowl of miso. Sango did not move from her place staring at the flowers as Kagome served herself.

InuYasha entered the hut, his body quiet as a shadow and his voice blaring as usual, "I'm hungry. Where's the chow?"

Sango seemed to come out of a trance, and the couple watched her as she stepped up to the bouquet and tore the flowers from her pillow. Both could only look on helplessly as the flowers were tossed abhorrently into the flames.

The two exchanged worried glances as the choleric taijiya got herself a fresh bowl and devoured it. InuYasha took his seat beside Kagome, his intrepid air waning.

As promised, Miroku did not return to the village until just before sunset, and even then he waited another hour before entering the hut. Everyone had officially retired for the evening after a bit more errand-running, so the hut Miroku set his cautious foot in was occupied by their entire group. Sango must've picked up on the jangle of his shakuju before he entered; she didn't even look up at him and her face had already stormed over. Shippou looked between the two, lollypop forgotten in his little hand.

The entire hut waited on baited breath for a cry of 'Hiraikotsu', but it never came. Miroku seemed to be thinking along those same lines, because his voice was intended toward Sango.

"Would you allow me in your company?" His face was impassive but his eyes contained desperation.

The taijiya shook with what they all assumed was rage, and it seemed any minute she would explode, but when she spoke to him it was with forced calm, "You may only stay in my company if you can prove you deserve that privilege, and believe me it'll take more than flowers."

InuYasha and Kagome gulped, staring at the blinking Houshi.

"Very well," He sounded pleased. He about-faced and swept the bamboo door aside, apparently going off to prove his worth.

Kirara let out a sleepy mewl, drawing everyone's attention away from the exit.

"Where do you think he's going?" Shippou asked the room.

Sango sighed, then laid her head down and closed her eyes. Shippou looked to the others, but no one had a reply.

InuYasha left the hut a little earlier than he usually did to go sleep or just sit in the boughs of Goshinboku. Kagome suspected he was going to investigate Miroku's trials of worthiness. She reminded herself to ask him in the morning as she too went to sleep, her before-bed thoughts a restless cycle of worry for Sango and Miroku's predicament as Shippou curled up at her side.

- - - -

Kagome awoke to a noise she could not identify, and she blinked in the pitch darkness, willing her eyes to adjust. The only light came in the form of a soft pinkish glow from around her neck. Before the fog had cleared from her mind a strong, sweat smelling hand had clamped over her mouth and she was yanked none to gently from her sleeping bag as she squirmed, her panic-filled screams muted by the hand.

"Kagome?"

"Kagome!"

She heard the voices of her friends just before she was dragged out of the hut, her legs scraping on the ground as she was granted sight again by the spectral luminescence of the waning half moon. In the infinitesimal second that passed after she looked up she discerned her captor in the night. His face was scarred, the veins protruding from his bilious eyes. His skull domed by but an oily shock of hair, his breath escaped the cage of his human teeth in rotting waves. He had the look of a wicked man, though he was clothed like a Samurai...

"KAGOME!"

There was a sound like rushing wind, then a spurting of blood and a cry of pain and Kagome awoke in soft arms, her breath coming in heavy pants. InuYasha's familiar smell came to her and all else ceased subsistence as she clung to him as if she were holding on to life. The claws that could sever a man came around her comfortingly, and though she could barely see him it was enough to feel his warmth there.

"Kagome, are you alright?" Sango asked, though it was InuYasha who replied.

"She's okay. It's these bandits who you should be worrying about."

There were more footsteps. Swords were drawn, and Sango gasped, "We saw you earlier! You were spying on Kagome and I while we were bathing, you scum!"

Kagome felt InuYasha's rage pique, a rumble growing inside him. He helped her over to Sango, of whom he requested to watch over Kagome.

"Give us the Shikon no Kakera," One of the bandits shouted, "Or face our swords."

"Ha! You puny excuses for humans, wield swords? The Samurai you took them from wouldn't have had a chance against me," InuYasha's knuckles popped.

Kagome was fast getting over almost being abducted by bandits, and was about to run into the hut and get her bow and quiver when Kaede came out and handed them to her.

"Here, child," Was all the old miko said as she strung her own bow and aimed it at the bandits now clustered by the dozens around the hut.

Their group ignored some of the villagers peeking out of the huts as the lead bandit stepped forward, his bloody outfit of the finest Samurai make, "Hand over the sliver now and we may spare your ignoble town."

"InuYasha!" Miroku's voice drew everyone's attention as he called to them from the outskirts of the village, but soon they were again focusing on the red-clothed hanyou.

"Enough," InuYasha drew Tessaiga, each surge of power that coursed through the steel fang sending a greater surge of fear crawling up the thieves' spines, "Leave this village now if you value your lives."

Shippou shivered in his place on Kagome's shoulder as some eyes flew to her, but the bandits could sense InuYasha's patience running out just as well as she could, "We don't need your jewel! There are others we know of--"

That was where the thief's speech ended. InuYasha moved forward and grabbed him by the throat, his golden eyes flashing like lightnings in the night as he held the man off the ground. The other bandits cowered from his might, Tessaiga gripped at his side as he shook the lead bandit slightly.

"You've heard rumors of another jewel shard. Tell me if you wish to leave alive," He hissed.

The man flailed feebly in InuYasha's clawed hold, "A jewel to the south...a great demon--Gah!"

InuYasha dropped the man and sheathed Tessaiga, the other bandits already heading for the hills, then gave him one last kick for good measure, "Take your men and flee and never return, for if you do I will kill you."

The man didn't need telling twice as he bumbled away with one hand at his tender throat. Kagome watched the scene amidst Kaede, Sango, Shippou, Kirara, and Miroku too as InuYasha turned around with a smirk.

"You hear that? A jewel shard to the south."

Miroku nodded, Kirara transformed and Sango and Shippou hopped onto her back.

"I'll get my backpack," Kagome then zipped inside to gather her sleeping bag and knapsack and slip on her footwear, Kaede stopping her before she could exit.

"Bring this potion with ye. It is for the taijiya," She dumped the contents of her gnarled hands into Kagome's young ones, the girl promptly packing the brew away with a farewell nod to the old woman before running out of the hut.

She blinked a couple times, her eyes meeting a most familiar sight, but her heart fluttering anyway when InuYasha turned her way, the predawn light coating his pale hair with an ethereal glow as he smiled adventurously at her. By old experience the hanyou turned and Kagome jumped onto his back, her legs in his hands as they flew after the fully loaded fire-cat.

They soared over the southern forest, seeing the top of the sun peaking over the horizon, and InuYasha breathed in the morning air, "Now _this_ is more like it."


	4. Dog Lord

Dog Lord

The gang made good time in traveling. Having left before dawn and taking advantage of InuYasha and Kirara's speed they had already put a fair distance between themselves and Kaede's village, yet Kagome still had not sensed another jewel shard.

Sango and Miroku were riding peacefully together on the fire-cat's back, but only because InuYasha had thrown an unholy fit when Sango had pushed him off and made him walk for a while. It greatly downsized their progress and InuYasha wouldn't have it, so in his normal brusque manner he had forced them to ride Kirara together with Shippou.

"We can't have those two hindering us just because they won't behave like adults," InuYasha told Kagome when they stopped for camp, loud enough for the subjects of his comment to hear.

InuYasha hadn't let Kagome sleep during the five hours of traveling, for she was the only one who could sense the shards. When they finally broke camp however, Kagome and Shippou had curled up in her sleeping bag with the hanyou's blessing as the other three made breakfast.

The sun had completely risen when they'd stopped, and it hadn't moved much when Kagome awoke to the smell of meat cooking. She did a double take when she saw that both the amount of food and the quality were not quite up to par, and she looked askance at InuYasha, typically the group's food-gatherer, who was sitting not far away from her.

All InuYasha did was shift his eyes over to where Miroku was sitting, and Kagome understood. Was this another trial of worth?

Kagome nudged Shippou awake as Miroku pulled the food away from where it was roasting on the fire and prepared to serve it. The kit blinked sleepily at the breakfast catch and arched an eyebrow.

"Um...how are all of us going to share that?"

Miroku sighed, handing a small fish to Shippou, "I am prepared to go without. This is all I could find."

Kagome looked to Sango and noted that she was pinning the Houshi with an almost hawk-like stare, as if waiting for the exact moment when he slipped up to go in for the kill. Miroku handed Kagome some meat, offered some to InuYasha, who refused, then turned to Sango. The taijiya accepted her helping without making eye contact.

Kagome decided to remember Sango's herb potion at that moment. Digging it along with a bottle of water out of her knapsack, she scooted over to Sango.

"Here--"

She started at an angry screech from Shippou, and she turned to see InuYasha bang him on the head and yank his breakfast from his tiny claws.

"Get your own!" Shippou wailed, pulling a leaf from his coat.

The minute InuYasha spotted it his eyes widened in fear, and he backed away hurriedly--right into Sango.

The herb potion fell to the dirt with a crack of the wooden container and a spray of sodden brew.

"InuYasha!" Kagome scolded, about to dish out a fresh batch of Osuwaris, but Sango's sigh distracted her.

"Kagome, do you know how to make more of this brew?" The taijiya questioned.

Kagome nodded, "I think so."

Sango stood, "Get up, Houshi-sama. It's time to prove your worth."

Miroku complied immediately, coming to the slayer's side like her faithful hound.

Kagome made to join them, "I'll come and help you find--"

"Not necessary, Kagome." The miko froze when Sango winked at her, "Thank you, but Houshi-sama, Shippou, and I will be able to find the herbs easily enough."

Sango looked in the kitsune's direction. Shippou yanked his food from InuYasha's limp hand and stuffed it into his mouth whole before hopping after the taijiya and the monk toward the nearby forest.

Kagome clenched her fist, _Sango...you're really serious about this plan aren't you? I wonder if InuYasha is getting wise yet._

Kagome slanted a glance at the hanyou in question. He was still gaping after the demon-slayer, but soon enough he felt her stare and huffed, stuffing his hands into the capacious sleeves of his haori. He had a look on his face that suggested he still expected to get his 'Osuwari'. Kagome heaved a sigh.

__

What am I going to do with my friends?

InuYasha looked at her tentatively, and she wondered what he was thinking. She was suddenly reminded of the night before, when she had nearly been kidnapped.

"Um," She began, "InuYasha--thank you."

"For what?" He asked, only half-irritably.

"Saving me from the thieves."

InuYasha growled, "Those bastards didn't know who they were messin' with."

Kagome smiled softly, _He must spend half his time saving me._

"I wonder what they meant by 'Great Demon'," She spoke her thoughts aloud. "It couldn't be Naraku, could it?"

InuYasha's eyes glinted with malice that had fermented over the time spent trying to kill their most devastating and cunning foe, "We've traveled pretty far south without a sign of a single jewel shard or anything unusual, but I wouldn't put it past that bastard to pull a trick like this."

Kagome knew if their was any means of divining the plans Naraku had in store for them, it was to always expect a trap, and it had been far too long for her taste since they'd last tangled with the evil hanyou or one of his minions.

"We'll just have to keep our eyes peeled," She looked down at her uneaten food, then at InuYasha's empty hands. "Here," She offered it to him. "I'm not hungry anymore."

He signaled to Kirara, "Give it to her. She needs it more than I do."

Kagome did as instructed and delivered the food to the fire-cat, who mewled her gratitude before tearing into the meat. Kagome walked back over to sit by InuYasha, placing herself closer to him than before.

__

Is this was I want? Kagome thought vaguely, _To be alone with him? To be close to him?_

"Kagome."

"Hmm?"

InuYasha shifted to face her, "So...what exactly is this 'dance' thing I'm supposed to go to?"

The miko wondered what answer would sound best, and she floundered for a second before stuttering out, "Uh--it's a thing in my time...like a party, where--um--friends go to have fun together and listen to music and--"

"Music? You mean that loud stuff you play with those shiny circles?" He insinuated, ears twitching.

She sweatdropped, "Yeah."

He grunted, "So--we'll return to the village for the new moon."

She picked up on the slight twinge of fear in his voice, hard as he tried to disguise it.

Kagome placed a comforting hand on his arm, "If you don't want to go to the dance on your human night I won't mind--"

"No, Kagome," He said flatly, though he looked sorely tempted. "I made a promise to you and my word is something I keep."

She smiled, more than familiar with his proclivity to keep his promises, "You know...you don't have to keep a promise if it hurts you."

He didn't pick up her ulterior meaning, "Don't be stupid. I'm going and that's final."

__

InuYasha..., "Okay."

In the time it took for the other members of their group to return Kagome actually enjoyed being alone with InuYasha. It reminded her of when their journey first began and it was just them searching for the shards, only InuYasha was a lot more sociable nowadays. Her friends back home would've thought it strange that her soul mate was a hanyou from five hundred years in the past. She, however, felt it was the most wonderful and natural thing in the universe, and also that she couldn't live if she were ever without his dour yet gentle presence.

InuYasha got a tad ruffled later on when their departure was delayed by Kagome having to make Sango's potion. It did turn out alright, but it put them on the road an hour later than the inuhanyou would have liked. He was soothed, however, as he and Kagome lightly conversed as he carried her southward after Kirara and the others. Even after Miroku's displays of chivalry that morning Sango still had not deemed him worthy, for she was a frosty as ever toward the monk, whose face was only beginning to heal (with a bit of help from Kagome's modern medicine).

Their traveling techniques were as efficient as usual, and before they knew it they were passing above the acreage of the vast and diverse southern lands. Later that morning the clear blue sky began to cloud over and the wind picked up, ominous gray thunderheads grazing from plot to unquenched plot of land ambiguously.

InuYasha stopped abruptly in the middle of tearing down a road, the dust that swirled around his feet still dry for the lack of rain, and Kagome felt the muscles of his shoulders tense beneath her hands as the wind whipped his hair back into her face, "What is it?"

The hanyou's eyes narrowed, "It smells like--"

Before InuYasha could end his sentence a shrill cry of pain ripped through the air, pulling their attentions to the tall grasses to their left just as Kirara touched down beside them. Not one to spare time for their companions, however, InuYasha sped off toward the source of the noise with Kagome still clinging to his back. The high grass sluiced past his legs until they come upon a small boy lying face down in the dirt, his foot caught in a hole dug by some manner of animal.

"It's a kid," Kagome stated blankly. The youngster, who looked to be about ten, wore a dark blue kimono and had his hair tied back in a thick black poof at his nape that hung flippantly past his shoulders.

InuYasha was the first to spring into action. He let Kagome down from his back and jumped to the little boy's side, turning him over after carefully lifting his foot from the hole. He groaned weakly as InuYasha sat him up, his eyes gradually focusing on the face of the hanyou hovering above him.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!" He screamed in fear, making InuYasha drop him in shock and Kagome back up strait into Miroku, who in turn was thrown back into Sango.

"What--?" The monk started, but got no further as the boy scrambled away in terror.

"The evil dog lord has returned! I must warn the village!" He shouted as he ran in the direction of his supposed village, only to fall again after three steps, "OW!"

"Oh no," Kagome approached him with her backpack, ignoring the horrified stare he was giving her as he tried to push himself away. "You shouldn't run. I think you're ankle might be broken."

"St-Stay away from me!" He shouted shakily, but angrily.

Kagome ignored his warning, kneeling down beside the boy as Miroku came up beside her to soothe him.

"You have nothing to fear from my companions and I. Please, let Kagome see to your wounds. She is an excellent healer."

The calm of Miroku's voice and the fact that he was a holy man and not a hanyou nor a strangely dressed girl allayed the boy's apprehension a bit, and Kagome happily opened her first aid kit as she adjusted his ankle into a better position.

"Now, where does it hurt?"

The boy blinked at the first aid kit, his eyes the same dark blue as his kimono, and pointed to his right ankle.

The others watched in meditative silence as Kagome saw to the boy's grievances, occasionally exchanging glances full of questions waiting to be asked to this dog-fearing village boy. InuYasha kept his place a stone's throw from the lad, looking indignantly at him one minute, then staring at him in seeming deep thought the next.

"There!" Kagome announced cheerily as she finished splinting his ankle. "You're good to go."

The boy gazed upon her with wonder, his mouth slightly agape as the last traces of nervousness he had evinced at their meeting left him.

Miroku took it upon himself to question the boy, "If you don't mind me asking, why did you scream when you saw InuYasha?"

The boy glanced over at the hanyou, his hands fidgeting, "I'm sorry. I thought he was the same inuyoukai that attacked my village two days ago."

Silence pervaded their solitary glade as all eyes but Kagome's turned to see the pensively furrowed brow the hanyou wore. The miko, however, kept her sights on the boy, "An inuyoukai? He resembled InuYasha?"

The boy nodded, glancing once again at the silver-haired half-demon before going into his tale, "Yes, but I didn't get a very good look at him. He brought with him a giant youkai and set it loose in our village. It destroyed many of our huts and killed some people."

"Is that why you've fled your village?" Sango asked leadingly.

The boy's tone became slightly defensive, "No, I was playing with--" He stopped, suddenly petrified, "Futoshi! Oh no! I lost him!"

"Who is Futoshi?" Kagome knew she had to calm the boy down lest he injure himself further. Luckily the timely arrival of Shippou assuaged the boy's anxiety.

"Is this him?"

They all turned to the little kit as he stepped out of the brush carrying a lizard in his arms, his rather overweight green body secured by a makeshift leash.

"Futoshi!" The boy cried, accepting his pet from the fox-demon. "Thank you."

"It was nothing," The kitsune answered loftily, puffing his chest out.

The boy didn't seem to fear Shippou for being a youkai, and he looked around at them with an apologetic smile on his face, "Please forgive me for earlier--"

"It's fine," Kagome waved him off, "Now, we'll help you get back to your village."

"What? Why?" InuYasha's voice boomed, as if making up for the time he had kept silent, "There's no reason to delay if you don't sense a shard--do you sense a shard?"

Kagome frowned, "InuYasha, you heard what happened! Their village was attacked and their homes destroyed. We can't just pass them by without offering our help."

"Besides," Miroku interjected with sobriety, "I don't know about all of you, but I would like to find out more about this inuyoukai if he is, as I suspect, your half-brother." Everyone looked at InuYasha to gauge his reaction.

__

Sesshoumaru? Kagome thought as she took in InuYasha's scowling face._ "Well, it's not like there are a lot of inuyoukai that look like InuYasha running around._

Kagome gasped as the memory of the day at the cemetery returned to her. She had forgotten all about the youkai's tombstone, casting it off as unimportant in the wake of Sango's pregnancy and asking InuYasha to the dance, but now...

Everyone watched leerily as InuYasha clenched his fist and growled, then resigned himself to his better half, "Keh! I suppose it's no use arguing!"

"My name's Jinsei," The boy told them as he allowed Futoshi to scamper ahead of them on the leash. After a few minutes of walking down the dirt path with Kagome's help he had grown more sure of himself, and was now limping along on his own, leading them to his village at a trudge.

"Well, Jinsei, I'm Kagome." She pointed out her friends, "This is InuYasha, Miroku, Shippou, Sango, and Kirara."

"Thank you all for helping me and Futoshi," Jinsei said happily.

"Is your village near?" Sango queried.

"It's not far. Beyond this next ridge," He answered, tugging on Futoshi's leash when the lizard strayed too far.

Kagome kept a steady pace as they walked up the incline. When she wasn't looking over at the incensed hanyou she was wondering about Sesshoumaru being alive in the Sengoku Jidai, but at the same time six feet under in her time.

The sky was looking ever the more menacing and the wind becoming hard to ignore. InuYasha tilted his nose skyward, a sour expression on his face as he sniffed.

"It'll be storming by nightfall. We'll have to work fast if we want to give these people shelter before the rain starts pouring."

Kagome turned to speak to him, "InuYasha, back there on the road--was it Sesshoumaru's scent you picked up?"

Kagome could feel the eyes of the others on them as InuYasha nodded, "But it wasn't just him. He had the human girl Rin with him and that foot-licking toad, Jaken. Then there's the stench of a dead youkai that I can smell worse than ever from here."

Sango pulled up behind the hanyou, "Are you saying Sesshoumaru was the inuyoukai who ordered the demon to attack Jinsei's village?"

"I don't see who else it could be."

Miroku's staff jangled as he plodded beside them, Shippou on his shoulder, "Hopefully the villagers will be able to elaborate on exactly what transpired two days ago."

A small cluster of huts came into view not five minutes later. From the acme of the gentle slope that led down to the rice fields and eventually the village itself, the gang could see the extent of the damage that had been done. Many huts had been reduced to rubble and splinters, and the many rice patties had been smooshed in by something that seemed to have giant, hoof-like feet trampling the marshy fields. In the village's center, what looked to be a large inn had been practically cleaved in two.

When they arrived at the bottom of the slope they had to cover their ears when someone howled, "JINSEIIIIII!"

An ancient woman was galloping toward them as fast as her spindly legs would carry her. Her arm was bound in cloth as if it had been injured. By the time she had stopped in front of Jinsei she was panting for breath, "What do you think you're doing, sneaking away from the chores assigned to you--again?"

"Excuse me, senpai." Miroku swaggered forward, "We have heard of your village's misfortune and my friends and I have come to offer--"

"BEAST!" The woman caterwauled, throwing a shriveled finger out at InuYasha. "Dirty hanyou! Leave this village!"

"Grandma!" Jinsei yelled, dragging her arm back to her side, "You don't understand--they aren't bad guys."

"Hold your tongue, whelp! You dare to justify bringing demons to our village?"

Kagome and the others looked around anxiously as a crowd of bedraggled villagers began to gather. InuYasha however, was watching the proceedings with apparent apathy.

"Grandma, their demons rescued me and found Futoshi." He continued, sticking out his ankle, "Kagome even bandaged my wound. Please Grandma, they mean us no harm. They want to help repair our houses."

After hearing her grandson's explanation the elder turned suspicious eyes on each of them in seriatim. Her wrinkles slowly began to smooth, though some of the villagers surrounding them sustained their disdainful visages.

"You saved my Jinsei?" She asked InuYasha levelly.

He gave a curt nod. Something seemed to pass between the elder and the hanyou in the rigid stare that persisted for several seconds before the old woman relaxed.

"Very well. We will accept your help."

- - - -

"Oh my, you've got some nasty scrapes. This may sting a bit," Kagome apprised in a soothing voice as she applied the herb to the young man's chest.

As promised, the group had gotten to work on fixing the village straight away. It had been thought that Kagome's skills would be better put to use if she tend to the wounded; the village healer was one among those who had died in the attack two days prior, and the villagers had salvaged what they could from her hut to treat their wounds with their limited medical knowledge. Kagome now sat just outside Jinsei's still-standing hut, doctoring anyone who came forward. After two years of running around in the feudal era, coming prepared with a village's worth of medical supplies had become an axiom, so there was plenty to go around. Her friends were out working on the huts. Even Shippou was helping, and he had gone out with the village boys to gather much needed timber.

Kagome grimaced as the next person in line sat down before her. The girl was no more than six years old, and the burns that marred the right half of her face had not healed well at all. Kagome's hands shook with sympathy and anger as she applied her modern antiseptic (which she was infinitely grateful for at times like this) to the child's injuries.

__

Sesshoumaru...if you did this you don't deserve your father's fang.

"I got it!"

Kagome swiveled her head around when she heard InuYasha's voice. Her eyes met a silver-haired hanyou in his vanilla undershirt hauling a cedar the length of a dozen men over his shoulder, the other village men trailing along behind him carrying smaller logs among each other. Kagome felt an unequivocally familiar pang jolt through her chest like electricity. Her throat constricted.

Somewhere in the haze of her mind she knew she must've been staring, but she couldn't help it. InuYasha stepped gracefully over to the man-made structure as if the tree riding on his arm were one of Shippou's illusions, visible but not really there. When he set it down there was a great crash that shook the earth below her, then the sound of splitting wood as he drew his merciless talons across the log. Kagome's breath caught as she watched, transfixed, the cedar falling apart in perfectly cut pieces.

She froze when his eyes caught hers. It was like he'd felt the burn of her gaze on him, and she was afraid she'd never be able to look away--

"Lady?"

"Huh? Yes?" Kagome jumped and turned to face the young girl she had been tending to.

"Am I healed?"

Kagome glanced over to see Jinsei's grandmother watching her intently, and felt her blush begin.

__

She saw me staring at him like a love struck little girl.

"Yes, you're all set," Kagome dismissed her distractedly, and the girl smiled from beneath the bandage that covered half of her face before scampering off.

Jinsei's grandmother was the next to seek her medical skills. She had waited for all of the other wounded to receive treatment before sitting down in front of Kagome herself, but the old woman's selflessness didn't make Kagome forget how she had yelled at InuYasha just because he was a half demon, even if her hostility _could_ be ascribed to Sesshoumaru's attack mere days ago.

As Kagome looked at Jinsei's grandmother the elder's gaze shifted to someone coming up on Kagome's left.

"Things are certainly going along more swiftly with your help."

Kagome turned to see InuYasha casually plop down next to her.

"Yeah. We thought we'd get the inn fixed first so everyone will have shelter if the storm comes early," He explained, glancing at Kagome, who did her best to cover the rising redness in her cheeks when she remembered he'd caught her staring.

__

InuYasha may put on airs, but he's really a nice guy at heart, Kagome thought as he accepted a bowl of soup from one of the village women.

After setting her own food at her side Kagome gently unwrapped the elder's bloodstained arm brace. She gasped as the cloth fell away, revealing several gashes. The cuts were so deep that her bone was visible even after two days of healing.

"What happened?" She asked quietly.

The elder winced as Kagome cleaned her wounds, "It was not one of the demons who injured me, but their human girl."

Both Kagome and InuYasha stopped what they were doing at her words. The miko found voice enough to articulate the first word that had come to mind, "Rin?"

"I know not her name, but she was a young thing of eleven, maybe twelve, but wielded her blades against ten of our men at once."

"So," InuYasha eyed her grimly, "Are you gonna tell us what happened two days ago or not, old woman?"

The elder seemed to size them up as Kagome prepared to stitch up her wounds, "There's not much to tell."

"Good, 'cause I don't want your life story."

She ignored him, beginning the story. "It all happen very suddenly. Rumors of unrest with the Taiyoukai of the south and of villages being attacked had been flying about the village when the inuyoukai came upon us. He was similar to you in semblance," She indicated InuYasha, "Only he had not your ears and wore a cape of white fur--"

"And he was missing an arm?" Kagome inquired pointedly.

"If he was, I noticed not. Anyhow, he brought a great horned demon to terrorize our village. He himself only attacked when some of the men tried to bring him down, and otherwise simply watched as his beast destroyed our homes and harvest."

"Then how did you get these wounds?" Kagome asked as she wrapped them.

"The inuyoukai's human ward and green demon saw fit to prevent the villagers from reaching their master. The girl, Rin, seemed to think that by beating us back with her weapons she was actually granting us mercy from the full wrath of her lord."

__

How right she was! I'd rather get stabbed in the arm by Rin than tangle with Sesshoumaru any day.

The elder continued, "The horned monster he set loose was the only thing that did any real damage or actually played predator, but in the end it was the inuyoukai lord himself that subdued the monster."

__

Sesshoumaru killed...? Kagome struggled to wrap her mind around what had happened.

"And after that he just left?" InuYasha's tone was incredulous.

"Yes. He took his toad vassal and human child away with him, and not a sign has been seen of them since."

__

Sesshoumaru didn't die? Well of course not, he's strong but--in my time Sesshoumaru is dead! The epitaph even said that he'd died early sixteenth century--five-hundred years ago in the Sengoku Jidai! Maybe he died on the way home...

Kagome's brain was befuddled as she finished with the old woman's wounds and received a thank you in return. Kagome was starting to feel more positive about the elder; not many people would up and place their trust in a demon, even if he'd saved ten of their grandsons.

She followed after InuYasha to help with repairing the damage dealt by who they now knew was most assuredly Sesshoumaru. Sango, Miroku, and Shippou were just as clueless as the rest of them regarding Sesshoumaru's motives when they briefed them on what they had learned from Jinsei's grandmother, but they all ventured a guess that it had something to do with Naraku. Everything fishy always seemed to have roots back to him.

Over the next few hours Kagome kept a running battle with herself over whether or not to tell InuYasha (or anyone for that matter) about the gravestone in her time. As soon as she started she would stop with a 'never mind' or 'I forgot what I was thinking'. The hanyou may have thought her mentally ill, but her gut was telling her she shouldn't mention what she'd seen in the future to him.

She was helping Sango transport a log when Shippou hailed her, "Kagome!"

"Shippou! How's it going?" She asked as he lit onto the log she was assisting Sango in the carrying of.

"It's fun. I'm helping the village kids a lot...but Kagome, you should see the bonfire the villagers built for getting rid of the body of the youkai Sesshoumaru sicked on them! The bones that are left on the wood are huge!"

"Wait Shippou--why aren't you working right now?" Sango quirked a brow at the kitsune.

At that very moment none other than Jinsei arrived beside them, looking up at Shippou beadily, "Hey! That was a neat trick you showed me to get out of chores! They won't notice we're gone for another hour now."

As InuYasha and Miroku helped with resurrecting new huts, Kagome and Sango spent the remainder of the time aiding the women in the resewing the of rice fields as Shippou and Jinsei goofed off. When that undertaking was completed and they returned to eat dinner in the village it was late in the afternoon. The winds had died down some, but the sky was as ominous as ever it had been.

"As payment for saving my grandson and helping our village, I insist that you stay the night in the shelter of our inn," The grandmother of Jinsei said, the villagers around her nodding.

"No," InuYasha told them simply.

"But the storm approaches--"

"We have a couple of hours yet. Besides, we need to track down that dog demon that attacked your village."

"Do you think Sesshoumaru is the great demon the thieves were talking about?" Sango questioned them from Kirara's back. After bidding Jinsei a final farewell they had taken to the skies, and were now heading further south, the cardinal direction in which the most prevalent of rumors the villagers had heard had come from.

"Keh. If he is then he's got something to do with a jewel shard."

They were far from Jinsei's village and passing over dense forest by sunset. The heavens were painted with fiery colors in the crevasses between thunder clouds, and that was when the gang spied a funnel of smoke originating from what appeared to be a small town.

Kagome recognized the familiar energy creeping into her, "There's a shard of the jewel down there."

InuYasha growled, "I smell blood."


	5. Break Away

Break Away

Almost every house and hut had been either burned to the ground or crushed down as if made of toothpicks. It looked like there had been a battle; the carrion of demons and humans lay in one great pile, and blood clotted in the dust of the otherwise lifeless streets. The large storehouse near the center of the village was still aflame, the smoldering timbers belching clouds of smoke against the sanguine sky to form a morbid mist that hung over the ruins.

"The women and the children too...," Miroku trailed off with a gesture of respect and a prayer.

"Those thieves could never have made it here before us." Sango's knees wobbled, "Could this have been--?"

"Sesshoumaru."

They all turned to InuYasha.

"His scent is all over this place. He slaughtered all these demons, massacred the village, then left."

Kagome felt sick, _I wish I could believe this was coincidence. I see Sesshoumaru's tomb in my time, and then after not seeing a single sign of him for months we come across two villages he attacked._

She was staring at the village yet not seeing it. The spectral image of Sesshoumaru's grave haunted her mind's eye as Miroku conjectured.

"But why? These unprovoked attacks don't seem the type of thing he would do unless he was getting something out of it. As usual, he has no interest in the jewel shard. It is still here, is it not, Kagome?"

She brought herself out of her chasm of confusion, "Yes. It looks like it's in the burning storehouse."

"InuYasha, Sesshoumaru is your brother. You of all of us have the best guess as to why he would sojourn to seemingly insignificant villages," Miroku reasoned.

"No idea. I don't exactly devote my interest to his schemes. Let's just get the jewel shard he left behind," InuYasha replied, pulling Kagome along with him so she could lead them to the jewel.

"We must be cautious. We do not know the strength of any demons drawn by the shard that may yet be alive," Miroku warned, running alongside them.

"He's right," Sango added. "There is something lurking."

__

What if that something is here on Sesshoumaru's orders? Or worse: what if it was what put Sesshoumaru in his grave? Anything capable of killing InuYasha's brother is bad news for us. But--InuYasha would have smelled something if Sesshoumaru had died...right?

"Kami...," Miroku breathed as they came to a halt at the periphery of the body pile that surrounded the storehouse.

"Ugh!" Shippou plugged his nose as InuYasha covered his own with his haori sleeve.

"Yep. This is definitely Sesshoumaru's doing, and less than a day ago too," InuYasha confirmed looking around at the bodies, the flesh that was still left on the bones, youkai and human alike, marred by fatal wounds from poison claws and whips, "Bastard. If we try to bury any of the villagers we'll be poisoned."

"This is sick," Kagome tried her best not to vomit all over the pool of dead demons and humans, "The bodies...they're laid out like an offering or something."

Sango glowered, "The shard is here, Kagome?"

Kagome nodded weakly, "It's in the storehouse."

She pointed to the edifice composed of kindling and ashes, but the only way to get there was across the river of poisonous corpses.

"I'll take you across," InuYasha's voice came from beside her. He scooped her and Shippou up and took the body pile in a single jump.

Luckily the section of the storehouse where the jewel was located had already burnt itself out, and InuYasha strolled easily through the still-in-tact doorframe and set her down. She followed her eyes until she was feet away from the jewel shard in the dim room.

"The shard's over--" She stopped when she heard a strange noise: like slithering...

"Kagome, look out!" InuYasha yelled, stepping in front of her just as something lunged at her from out of the darkness.

"Snakes!" Shippou screeched, and Kagome watched in horror as InuYasha acted as her shield, a large serpent's fangs lancing into his neck.

He raked his claws across its scaled body, freeing the perforations in his skin from the creature's bite.

"InuYasha, are you alright?" Kagome asked shrilly.

"Dammit! These snakes are venomous," He ranted as a dozen more of them shot at them only to be severed into moieties by InuYasha's demon claws, but one slipped past his defenses, and Kagome screamed when she felt one wrap its long tail-like form around her leg.

The snake didn't even have a chance to open its jaws before InuYasha had ripped it from her leg, tossing it malevolently from him as he searched for more.

Sango came running into the storeroom from behind them, "We heard Kagome scream."

Miroku halted as the taijiya went to Kagome's side, "There is a youkai here."

InuYasha shredded yet another serpent that tried for Sango, the taijiya stepping forward to where she sensed the same demonic presence that everyone else did.

Kagome blinked from behind InuYasha when she saw the shard move through the dark, as if someone were picking it up, "It's got the shard!"

The demon slayer hefted Hiraikotsu in her hand, taking a step back as she lifted the deadly boomerang over her head and hurled it from her. Kagome gripped her bow tightly as the shard twinkled out the line of fire, the only sound in the room that of Hiraikotsu flying through the air until it connected with the scorched wall of the storehouse.

The darkness was pierced with bloody twilight in an explosion of wood, and everyone's eyes went to a tall figure standing in a pool of snakes, a large bushy tail waving behind him as he slipped the jewel shard into a silver medallion on his chest.

"He's a fox demon," Sango informed them with a small amount of awe.

As Hiraikotsu soared back to its master the youkai extended his midnight claws, cutting the demon bone in two with a quick slashing motion. Both pieces were arrested as they smashed into the floor, and what little snakes remained scurried to his pawed feet, vanishing as soon as they made contact with him, then remerging as green patterns upon the fabric of his hakama.

"Name yourself!" InuYasha commanded, his hand gripping Tessaiga's hilt. A flush had come to his face that Kagome assumed had to do with the snake venom.

__

Where's Myouga when we need him?

The stranger took a step forward, giving them a clearer view of his dark skin. The light of the dying sun glinted off of it just as it did the scales of his snakes. His neck and hands were emblazoned with bright orange stripes to match the eyelids that enshrouded reptilian eyes. Dark hair flowed elegantly from where it was tied atop his head, much in the way two bright red feathers cascaded off of his two shoulder plates.

"I am Lord Takakuri, defender of my father's lands," The young man bellowed, revealing lethal fangs. He nimbly drew two Sai from his obi, "You stink of the youkai who has slaughtered this village under his protection."

He crouched, then shot like a spear toward InuYasha, the blades of his Sai caroming off of the already drawn Tessaiga.

__

Oh no! He must think we're allied with Sesshoumaru! Kagome thought as she watched the youkai deftly hop back from Tessaiga's parry, _How long will InuYasha be able to hold him off with that toxin inside him?_

Kagome stumbled past the demolished wall out onto the village streets after the others, pulling her yellow backpack off and nocking an arrow as she went. A bright explosion came from within the storehouse, and it crumbled to the ground as InuYasha and Takakuri leapt away from it, their blades entwined as they landed near Miroku, both trying to gain advantage over the other.

Kagome hailed the monk, "Do something! InuYasha won't be able to fight as well as usual! He's been poisoned!"

He comprehended immediately, charging at them as he released an ofuda. Making contact with Takakuri's shoulder armor, it distracted him by disintegrating the material as Miroku swung at him with his shakuju. The youkai shoved Tessaiga away with his Sai so he could deflect Miroku's staff. InuYasha stumbled back, panting.

Kagome wasn't sure what to do as Miroku got in a few good blows, only to be thrown back by the youkai, _I hope that venom isn't deadly; I don't think we can win this without InuYasha!_

As Miroku was flung to the ground Kirara came out of nowhere to attack the youkai. The giant fire-cat roared and tackled him, his arm viced between her fangs.

Takakuri took a leaf from behind his tipped ear, and the next thing anyone knew his body had disappeared in a burst of blue sparks that sent Kirara to the ground, her enormous body crashing down onto Kagome's backpack.

__

Dammit, the miko cursed mentally as she heard its contents give under the pressure, _My medical supplies!_

As Sango ran to Kirara's aid Kagome followed her feelings, using her sense of the jewel shard to find out where Takakuri had reappeared. In a split second she turned and fired her arrow at a point just above InuYasha.

The miko energy swirled around the arrow as it arced upward toward Takakuri, whose Sai were poised to strike an unwitting InuYasha from above. He dodged her arrow at the last second, but not before he had hurled both his Sai down at InuYasha. The blades impaled him, one through each shoulder blade, as Kagome's arrow was evaded by the youkai, leaving instead a gaping hole where the branches of a tall tree once swayed.

"InuYasha!" Kagome gasped, reaching out as if she could touch him where he stood several meters from her.

InuYasha grunted as he yanked the forked blades from his shoulders and hurled them to the ground, whereupon they shriveled up into crimson-daubed leaves. Takakuri landed lightly in front of a collapsed hut, his sea green eyes locked on InuYasha as he pulled two more leaves from the argent medallion on his chest that housed the jewel shard, bearing upon it the insignia of a leaf. The real leaves in each of his hands shone bright blue and transformed once more into Sai.

Pointing, Shippou called out from Kagome's shoulder, "I don't know what kind of youkai that is, but he's _not_ a kitsune!"

Takakuri's gaze flitted over to Shippou. As he turned to them a bloody InuYasha suddenly leapt in front of her and the kit, blocking them from his disquieting stare. He brandished Tessaiga before him.

"What the fuck are you attacking us for? We had nothing to do with destroying this village!" InuYasha snarled, his speech slurred from the poison.

Takakuri didn't seem to believe him, "My father is the Taiyoukai of the south. I defend the inhabitants of his territory," He stroked his silver medallion thoughtfully, "Also, just as you seek this jewel shard, I will have yours."

InuYasha straightened, looking back at Kagome just as the miko discerned something very wrong exuding from the youkai. The glint in his eyes made them seem almost hypnotic, and though he wasn't looking at her she started when his pupils flashed orange. Shippou stiffened on her shoulder, and she turned her head to see his eyes glowing the same color.

With a whoosh Kagome was encircled by Shippou's foxfire, the flames trapping her and the kit within a mystical sphere of blue. InuYasha shouted her name, throwing himself at the barrier as he endeavored to reach the inside, but the barrier threw him back with a vengeance, and he landed sprawled on the ground some feet away. He grimaced, cursing his wounds as well as the turn of events that put Kagome in such danger.

"Shippou?" Kagome asked charily, staring into his undulating orange eyes.

The kit did not respond, but moved, trance-like, to yank the bottle of Shikon slivers from around her neck, then hop to the ground beside her.

__

What did that Youkai do to him?

Through the blur of the foxfire around her she saw Sango run at the youkai wielding her sword, but when she swung at him the blade passed beneath his fox-like feet as Takakuri leapt skyward, landing in the boughs of the giant tree.

Suddenly the shield encircling Kagome and Shippou lurched, and she became alarmed as it began to move. The ground disappeared below her, the foxfire shield flying up toward Takakuri like a magnet, bringing them along with it. InuYasha's voice rang in her ears, his lips forming her name.

Kagome barely had time to think before her mind acted of its own, her hands gripping her bow and aiming it at the barrier. She loosed the arrow, and she and Shippou stopped their ascent as the foxfire flared pink in a conflagration of sparks that disintegrated the arrow she had shot.

"Ah!" Kagome shut her eyes against it, feeling the fire lick at her skin, singeing it, her means of support evaporating as the barrier finally flickered out.

Kagome snatched Shippou out of the air as they fell, but they never hit the ground; Sheathing Tessaiga, InuYasha caught Kagome in midair, bringing her safely back down to earth just as Takakuri hopped down from the tree to retrieve the bottle of jewel shards that had fallen to the ground a ways away.

Shippou opened his eyes, which had turned back to green, and clutched tightly to Kagome's shirt, "Kagome? What happened?"

She held the kit to her protectively as InuYasha held her in much the same manner, growling dangerously as Takakuri tossed Kagome's bottle of the Shikon no Kakera in his hand.

"You bastard!" InuYasha barked as the shards were deposited in his medallion with the intaglio of the leaf.

Takakuri turned just in time to block Sango's sword with his Sai. She wore her slayer's mask, and just as he was preoccupied with defending against her blade she pulled a poison bomb from her armor, unleashing it at his feet.

The noxious gas swirled around him as he fended off Sango's sword. Her eyes widened when he did not show any signs of being affected by the poisonous powder. In fact, he inhaled a great deal of it with apparent imperturbability before extricating a leaf from behind his ear and tossing it to the ground as Sango backed away. The leaf became a writhing pile of snakes that immediately launched themselves at the sweating slayer.

"SANGO!"

Miroku jumped into the cloud of virulent gas to stand in front of her just before the serpents overcame her, opening his wind tunnel in one swift movement. Sango grasped his shoulders as the poison gas as well as the legless lizards were drawn into the howling abyss of his blighted hand, along with Takakuri's Sai and bits of wood that had once been homes to the deceased villagers. The earth itself moved with the force of the kazaana, and the youkai's face registered astonishment before he vanished from within the maw of the cursed winds. His body was replaced by a stone statue very much like Shippou's save that it was an imitation of a snake, but it too soon disappeared into Miroku's hand.

"Ugh!" Sango's body was ripped from Miroku's back as Takakuri held her fast by her wrists so that she couldn't get her sword in him, his knee digging into the small of her back as she struggled in his hold.

Miroku closed the kazaana in horror, the beads falling across his hand as he turned to face Takakuri with a dark determination, "Let her go, fiend!"

All in one second, Miroku drew his ofudas, Kagome felt InuYasha's hand fly to Tessaiga, and a rumble of thunder shattered the air, followed by a tempestuous gust of wind. Eyes pointed skyward, Takakuri released the taijiya, shoving her into Miroku's arms. They all looked on warily as he addressed InuYasha, scowling.

"Now that I have the shards I suppose I will spare your lives, but only if you forbear intruding upon my father's lands in the future."

With that he flicked another leaf to the ground, and his body disappeared in a scintillating puff of blue.

After recovering from the abrupt cessation in fighting, Sango escaped Miroku's ferocious hug to run to Kirara's side and Kagome felt the presence of all four shards recede from her mind.

"Is he gone?" Shippou's trembling voice asked hesitantly from her arms.

"Yes." She gave the affirmative as InuYasha lowered them to the ground, then suddenly noticed that Shippou had been burned--but it wasn't from the foxfire, "Shippou, your skin..."

__

Just like the foxfire burned me when I dispelled the barrier, my purifying powers must've hurt Shippou!

Shippou gave a weak moan as he looked down at his raw palms, his tiny clawed fingers flexing faintly.

"Kagome, where's your--" InuYasha suddenly looked up to see Sango coming toward them carrying kitten Kirara in one hand and Kagome's backpack in the other.

Sango dropped the yellow lump beside Kagome. The fabric had been torn to reveal the entrails of the backpack. All the gauze had been coated in various food and drink stuffs that had burst when Kirara had fallen on it, and her first aid kit looked like it had been ground by a mortar and pestle. Her sleeping bag was badly torn and more than one of her school books had been ripped all the way in half.

"We have to get back to the village," Sango stated firmly. "Without Kagome's medicine our injuries will have to be treated by Kaede."

Just then a tremendous peal of thunder clapped over them like the symbols of the gods, and they all looked toward the foreboding clouds in the sky, the sun only just having set.

Miroku stopped with a distance of a few feet separating himself and Sango, "We should find shelter for the night at least. It would not be safe to travel during such weather. I suggest we find a hut that is still mostly intact to bed down in."

InuYasha picked up Kagome as the others nodded. His injuries had stopped bleeding, though the shoulders of his haori were still stained with it. Kagome didn't complain as he carried her off after Miroku; she figured he had probably spotted her injuries and would refuse to let her alone because of them. She herself thought she might have trouble walking anyway. The fire had gotten her pretty bad on the calf of her left leg, and the burnt skin tingled with pain as they wandered the demolished town in pursuit of a place to sleep, hopefully out of the upcoming rain's reach.

By the time the group found a suitable hut that was far enough away so that InuYasha wasn't bothered by the stink of the corpse pile, Shippou was asleep in Kagome's arms. Inside the small space was a pit for a fire and enough bedding to meet their needs, so Kagome immediately set up a bed for the kit, who was accompanied in sleep by an exhausted fire-neko.

A fire was built. There was plenty of dry wood outside since the rains had not yet begun to fall, and they kept several of Kagome's ruined school books handy incase the flames died.

The monk and the exterminator sat in opposite corners of the hut. Miroku clandestinely watched Sango through narrowed eyes as she examined the severed pieces of her Hiraikotsu that she had retrieved.

InuYasha walked over to where Kagome was sitting in a far corner and sat down close to her, his ears and nose twitching in a dog-like way.

"Kagome, is the pain of your wounds bearable?" Sango asked from her corner.

"Yes, I'll be fine. I'm just glad we all came out of it okay," Her eyes lingered on the snoozing kit before traveling back to Sango, "What about your weapon?"

She looked down at Hiraikotsu, "I have some special ointment. I recovered it from my village when we last went there. I should wait until we return to Kaede's to use it however; if we decide to travel in the morning and it is still storming the rain waters will make the ointment useless."

Kagome nodded. She looked over at InuYasha, then drew close to him, "InuYasha, how bad are your injuries?"

"Feh, they're already healing," He assured her, sounding a little more lucid than before, which pacified her to some degree.

Sango gave the couple a sideways glance, then set her boomerang down, "Come with me, Houshi-sama. I have another task for you."

Miroku, who had been looking at Kagome and InuYasha, turned his gaze Sango's way as she pulled him out of the hut, the wind whipping the bamboo flap behind them. Kagome paid no mind. She was getting used to Sango's leaving InuYasha alone with her--or at least relatively alone.

"Has--has the poison worn off?"

"It's not affecting me so much now," He answered, blinking at her. "Lie down, you've been burned. Or have you already forgotten?"

Rolling her eyes, she sighed, "I can't believe he took the jewel shards."

He gave her a light yet stern shove, forcing her to lie back, "Who cares. We'll get them back, and gut Takakuri in the process."

Kagome stopped him in his quest to assay the exigency of her burns, "But InuYasha--he can't be all that bad. He thought we attacked the villagers because your scent resembled Sesshoumaru's. He was defending them."

InuYasha's brows knitted, "So you're taking the side of someone who hurt you and Shippou and the others? You could've been killed! He doesn't deserve your understanding or mercy just because he jumped to the wrong conclusions! Dammit Kagome--!"

She grimaced, "I'm not taking his side!" She looked over at Shippou, making sure he was still asleep. "I'm just glad he wasn't on Sesshoumaru's side."

"Keh," InuYasha's attention returned to her burns, "He might as well have been. He could've been tricking us, you know."

"Could be, but like I said, I don't think he's a bad guy, and I know you don't either," She said staunchly, looking down at her hand that was splayed behind her, "I just wish I knew what Sesshoumaru was planning."

"He probably woke up and realized he hadn't killed anyone in a while and decided to go reek some havoc," InuYasha muttered caustically as he pored over her wounds.

__

That doesn't sound like InuYasha's brother. This--it was like he went and gathered everything he killed to make it more conspicuous! At both of the villages people and demons alike were attacked wantonly, and I've never known Sesshoumaru to go looking for--

Kagome's head snapped up when she felt something warm and moist slide over the burn on her calf. It wasn't painful at all--rather soothing actually--but when she realized what it was goose bumps raised themselves all along her arms and legs and her face heated furiously.

"InuYasha--?" She uttered his name in a choked whisper that even his ears had a hard time hearing as she watched his tongue pass over her cauterized flesh a fourth time.

At her voice he seemed to come to his senses. His tongue ceased its licking and he raised his head to look at her for a split second before he averted his gaze, a blush tinting his cheeks.

"S-Sorry. I was just trying to help," He explained in a meek voice. He chanced a few glances at her, his hands balled up on the floor as he squatted.

__

No bathroom to run to this time, Kagome, She thought to herself, shame biting at her. _There's no reason to run away! InuYasha was just concerned, and he was showing it in the best way he knows how._

"No--it's alright," InuYasha dared a cautious glance at her as she tried desperately to keep her head up, "You were helping. You were making it feel better."

She then ducked her head shyly, unable to keep herself from doing so. The vulnerable and open feeling that washed over her was making her nerves dance, a sensation that was all to familiar when she was with the hanyou. A few nebulous thoughts crossed her mind, wondering if he was feeling the same things she was when he scooted closer to her, taking a seat beside her.

She looked to the clawed hand that had nestled itself upon her shoulder. Kagome swallowed.

__

Is it the poison that's influencing him to act so--?

"I--" He began shakily, "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you."

Kagome's heart swelled, her hand coming up to cover his, "It's okay. None of it's your fault. You did all you could."

InuYasha's lip curled slightly, "That's the problem. I did all I could and it wasn't goddamn enough. Next time you might not be so lucky, Kagome," He drew her close to him, hugging her upper body to him as her legs remained stretched out on the floor, one over the other.

He sighed in her ear, his breath tickling her as any thoughts of pain were blown away. Kagome couldn't help the tiny gasp that escaped her as he held her tight to him, the smell of dried blood mingled with his own scent--wild and untamable as his demon half, yet at once conscientious and mundane like his human side--filling her nose.

"I hate it when you fight. I never knew this kind of fear until I--I realized your getting hurt was a possibility," He breathed, sending a warm shiver up her spine.

Trying to regain some equanimity, Kagome eased herself away from him, but still remained where he had drawn her into his lap. She looked toward the fire, but made the mistake of leaving her hand on his chest, her fingers playing lightly at his collar where his cream undershirt peeked out from beneath his haori.

Kagome kept her gaze shifted sideways even as his eyes tried to capture hers, "InuYasha..."

Her heart felt ready to beat its way out of her bosom when his hands tightened, pulling her nearer, "Kagome."

She was eye to eye with him, her fear and uncertainty now insignificant in juxtaposition to the rays of heat shooting from those ocherous eyes and dripping down her entire body as his nose brushed hers, his ivory hair whispering against her face.

She could feel his need for her, more real than ever it had been before, with each warm breath against her lips that drew her deeper into his embrace. She realized his want for her by the way his eyes--the eyes she'd found refuge in for so long--seemed to drink her in. His love--his hands lightly caressing her back, the claws he'd inherited from his youkai father leaving warmth on her skin that she felt all the way up her spine and at the base of her neck to the bottom of her toes.

__

Screw it--if this is the poison then I guess it is.

She pushed herself forward and her lips found his, pressing a gentle kiss against his fangs as a shaky breath left his body, just before she felt his grip on her constrict, locking her body to his. As he pulled back after that first chaste kiss the clouds released their rain, the hard droplets pounding on the frail straw of the roof. Kagome watched him through fluttering lashes as he bent his head and exhaled heavily, then tipped his nose back up, his lips brushing across her jaw line as he inhaled her scent in deep whiffs.

What started off as the softest kiss evolved, and suddenly they weren't close enough to each other. Kagome felt his heart thudding like Thor's hammer under her slender fingers that clutched at the dark beads of his kotodama, his lips moving urgently over her own. The experience was thrilling; exploring a part of InuYasha he had never shown her. She was certain her soul would deliquesce surrounded by his raw power, his light, his affection, everything she believed so perfect yet just as unattainable. Also, she registered the obligation to give something back to him, her heart coercing her into giving him exactly what he was giving her.

Relying on instinct, she searched his face out with her hands. She cupped his cheeks, then found the wetness of his lips with her tongue, tenderly brushing one of his fangs as a few drops of rainwater wriggled past the barrier of the roof to splash on their heads. InuYasha was taken by surprise for all of one second before he came back to meet her full force. His passion turned her blood to fire and her body gave in, becoming weak in submission as breathing became an operose enterprise.

In the next few moments where they were both tip-toeing on the hairline border of prurience, something clicked in Kagome's head. The voice that had previously been muffled by the steaming fumes of ecstasy had clawed its way to the surface of her mind, shouting at her to break away, though every other part of her screamed and cried to continue.

The little voice was victorious, and InuYasha relinquished her when she pulled her mouth away from his.

"Kagome?" His timbre was rough, his eyes weighted down with a honey-glazed rapture. She shivered.

"We can't," She met his suddenly stupefied face with a grimace, "I--"

They both jumped as footsteps clapped on the wet ground outside, procuring Sango and Miroku before the couple could move an inch.

"Oh...," Miroku looked between them. "Are we interrupting something?"

Sango watched the scene play out with worry in her eyes as Kagome unglued herself from InuYasha, whose arms first had to untangle from around the miko. Both were at the height of ruddiness.

"I'm going to sleep," Kagome announced in a small voice as she plopped down beside Shippou. Another tintinnabulation of thunder rumbled outside.

Kagome curled up beside Shippou, purposefully facing the wall. The battered body of the kitsune rose and fell in a tranquil breathing pattern, and she willed her own to follow likewise. Her eyes fell on a burn across the young youkai's face.

__

Damn that Takakuri. I'm so sorry Shippou. I hope you'll be o--huh?

She looked up over her shoulder when a blanket was draped over her, only to see InuYasha retreating to sit by the fire across from Miroku. Kagome turned her head back toward the wall, pulling the blanket close. Her pulse was still resounding in her ears and her heart slamming against her rib cage.

__

I am so not going to be able to sleep tonight.

"Toss another one of Kagome's school books into the flames, would you?" Miroku requested.

"Keh." That was one of the last sounds she heard that evening, followed by the crackling and spitting of the fire pit as it devoured her math equations, before the hut grew quiet and the sounds of the storm took over.

- - - -

The light spilling into the flimsy shack awoke Kagome, and she blinked her eyes open, immediately remembering the night before, _Was is a dream?_

Hell no, it wasn't. I may have dreamt of InuYasha before but I sure as hell didn't--couldn't--dream that up.

Shippou and Kirara had left her side, and there was no noise in the hut behind where she was curled in the fetal position facing the wall. Still, she dreaded turning around.

__

Pretend you're asleep, pretend you're asleep, pretend you're asleep--

"Kagome?"

"Sango?" Kagome sat up too quickly and stretched a burn that was trying to heal, "Ouch!"

"What's wrong?" The taijiya asked from beside her, trying to assess what ailed her by looking at her pained face.

"Just...just my injuries."

"Don't worry. The weather has cleared up. We'll be back at the village before night falls."

Kagome nodded, looking around the hut and then back at her friend, her demeanor exhausted.

Sango leaned closer to her, "He's out gathering breakfast with Houshi-sama."

Kagome winced. Was 'I kissed InuYasha' stamped on her forehead or something?

"Kagome--what happened last night?"

She'd been expecting that. Kagome noticed Shippou glance at her from beside the hearth, and suddenly it dawned on her that she didn't really want everyone knowing, "Let's just say...your plan worked."

Sango might not have heard her response but for the reassuring pat she gave her friend. For some reason it quelled a bit of her uneasiness, but then she was assailed by a pang of guilt. Had Sango felt so lost after getting pregnant with Miroku's child, dealing with the confusion on her own, acres past the limits of Kagome's reach?

Kagome shook the thought away. She was glad to be here for her friend now. "Kaede can make some more of that potion once we get back to the village," Kagome mentioned to the taijiya as she wandered toward the fire, a few shapeless book covers molting atop the blackened tinder.

Sango nodded, then pointed to a generous purple cloth that was spread out on the floor, the separate pieces of Hiraikotsu resting in the center, "Houshi-sama told me to tell you he can carry the remains of your knapsack home in that."

"Okay," Kagome agreed, getting up to put her ruined things in Miroku's raiment.

Breakfast was quiet but satisfying, Kagome keeping her eyes pointed downward throughout the meal as she unabashedly gorged herself on InuYasha's fabulous catch.

Shippou, youkai though he was, had not healed well overnight like InuYasha and Kirara had, and Kagome wanted to get him to Kaede as quickly as possible. They were packed and ready to go shortly afterward, Kirara transforming so she could carry her passengers and InuYasha looking at Kagome expectantly.

Kagome's eyes eluded his just as they had all morning. Instead she found herself gazing at the fire-cat preparing for takeoff. Perhaps it would be best if she rode Kirara. After all, she really wanted to avoid talking to InuYasha, or just plain being in awkward silence with him. But no, if she were to ride Kirara he would think her a coward.

__

I am though.

Before she could say a word the hanyou was standing in the mud in front of her, "Don't worry about your burns. I'll take it easy on you." And with that he turned around, offering her his back.

His unanticipated words had numbed her, and she stumbled forward into his arms. Next thing she knew she was positioned comfortably against his haori as they soared after Kirara under the still gray but rainless sky.

As the minutes melted into hours and the sun plied the sky above the clouds, Kagome's attitude changed. She had started off reveling in the silence, wishing it could last forever and she would never have to have that cumbersome conversation with InuYasha. Soon enough though she was longing for him to say something--anything--to her, even if it was a cold and callous remark reminiscent of their first year together. It was driving her nuts trying to figure out the meaning behind his silence. Was it disappointment? Fear? _Disgust_? Those were the possibilities that made Kagome cringe, but even as she worried she knew she was just being paranoid, and that he was probably having qualms similar to her own.

The negative feelings overwhelmed the positive though, and by the time they reached Kaede's village Kagome was ready to hurl herself down the well. The pair had spoken hardly a word during the entirety of the trip, which was not something the others had neglected to notice. The trend continued even as they sat around Kaede's fire as the old miko tended to the kits wounds, Sango rubbing her special ointment on her demon-bone as Kagome watched Shippou anxiously. She waited to make certain that he was fine until announcing that she was going home down the well.

"What?" InuYasha bellowed, startling the entire hut.

"You have ears," She eyed the lineaments, "I'm going back home."

With that she picked up the tattered remains of her backpack and marched out of the hut and into the gloaming.

"You can't just go home! What kind of nonsense is that?" He ranted, stomping after her as she made for the well, "You haven't even let Kaede bandage your wounds!"

"You just won't give it a rest, will you?" Kagome yelled as she rounded on him, her anger giving her more courage than she had retained after the previous night. "I'm going and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

She marched up the hill, the well in her line of vision, but it was promptly blocked out by red fire rat robes. InuYasha loomed over her, his countenance smug, "Well, your _mother_ says she trusts me to keep you safe over here, so I think that gives me more than enough power to stop you."

Kagome blinked at him. Her mother's words had obviously gone to his head; he'd said it with such pride. She decided to ignore the fact and do what she had to do.

"You can't just keep me here--I need a new backpack you know!" She indicated the dilapidated scrap of yellow in her arms.

Kagome tried to go around him, but he kept stepping in front of her, finally grabbing her on both shoulders to firmly hold her in place.

"Stop," His eyes pierced hers, "running away from me."

Shock and shame and a little bit of anger pricked her heart at his words, and she jolted as he drew her closer, clearly not wanting her to get away. She struggled to get out of his hold even as she blushed, but possessed no such strength to overcome him.

"InuYasha--let me go."

He held her tighter, his arms caging her like iron bars.

"I'll say--"

"You'll go down with me," He countered obstinately, a tenacious fire in his eyes.

Kagome glared at him, "I don't care. So let me go unless you want us both to get hurt."

Her words having sunk in, he lowered at her with every ounce of stubbornness he had, then freed her. She couldn't ignore the sorrow behind his eyes, however, as she walked past him and leapt down the Bone Eater's Well.

She passed through the time slip and arrived in her own era, the magical light slowly fading from her vision as she found herself at the base of a ladder in a pitch black well house.

"I can't believe him," She grumbled as she climbed each rung with minute focus on the actual task at hand. "He can be a real pain."

Kagome pulled herself over the lip of the well, bumbling toward the staircases while muttering darkly about the inuhanyou, when she heard a strange noise.

__

That had better be Buyo, Kagome thought fervently as she peered about in the darkness.

It didn't take long for her eyes to adjust and she went up the steps, her mind shouting something else regarding InuYasha with each one, when her foot connected with something breathing harshly.

__

Oh my God, "Grandpa?"


	6. Contrition

Contrition

Kagome disposed of the wrapper from the eighth Crunch Bar she'd eaten since she, her mother, and Souta had arrived at the hospital. She took her seat on the wobbly chair betwixt her younger brother and the vending machine, both of them humming, the candy machine with the power of electricity and Souta with his gurgling snores.

The schoolgirl peered up through tired eyes at the clock. It was three-thirty in the morning. Kagome yawned, then shut her eyes as another throbbing wave of pain overcame her in the form of a headache. She gingerly touched her face, massaging her temples. She wasn't particularly taken unawares by the sudden onslaught of illness. Actually, it would have surprised her if she didn't at least have a headache. A day containing a brush with death in the form of a fox-like youkai, having her first kiss bestowed upon her by her best friend and object of admiration so spontaneously, then topped off with discovering her grandfather had collapsed in the well house while he was tending to the shrine was not exactly a cup of tea. Not to mention the phantasm that was Sesshoumaru's grave that now haunted her every waking thought. At present the voice of the doctor only a couple of hours ago was stuck on replay in Kagome's mind, refusing to allow her even a minute's rest.

__

Doctor Yamamoto invited them into Grandpa's room after his condition stabilized, which had been after nearly five hours of waiting. Her mother stood close to her children, and Kagome held Souta's hand as the boy held back tears at the sight of Grandpa's feeble form in some stage of sedation on the hospital bed, the tubes and monitors enveloping him as banal as his ofudas and spiritual wards once had been.

The female doctor and her mother shared a meaningful glance. Her mother nodded, and the doctor turned to Kagome and Souta.

"Your grandfather has suffered a heart attack, but he's doing much better now." The doctor bit her lip, then continued solicitously, "Skilled surgeons will be performing a triple bypass on him within the week. The operation will heal him significantly and he will be able to function almost normally. Your grandfather is quite old however, and it is not expected that he'll live longer than another year."

"Less than a year," Kagome bemoaned. "Grandpa..."

They were too much for Kagome, the experiences of the past twenty-four hours that clogged her brain, and before she could stop it a great tear rolled down her face, splashing onto the bandages wrapped around her arms that were neatly folded in her lap. She had been in such a hurry to leave the Sengoku Jidai, then was shoved into her mother's car with Souta so they could chase the ambulance carrying Grandpa to the hospital. It wasn't until she was sitting in a nervous heap in the waiting room that she'd realized she must look a dreadful mess, and when a nurse (who looked down upon Kagome with pity) offered to bandage her up for no cost.

"Kagome?"

Still crying, the girl raised her chin to see her mother enter the waiting room, her face vitiated by stress lines. Casting a fond glance at her sleeping son, Kagome's mother sat down beside her daughter, who tired desperately to hide her tears.

Mrs. Higurashi had a way with people, however, and at the resting of one maternal hand on her daughter's wet cheek the raven-haired girl broke down completely, sobbing all the day's events into her mother's spring parka.

"Why did this happen, Mama? Grandpa's never had heart problems. He never...," She choked on her tears.

By now her mother was crying as well, "I'm sorry. I wish I'd have done something sooner. Grandpa has always been suspicious and adamantly independent of modern technology and medicine, being a Shrine Priest."

"But it's not fair. The doctors say he'll only live for another year."

Kagome's mother stroked her daughter's hair as she continued to weep, "Everything that happens has some purpose in the great scheme of things, Kagome, though we may never come to realize it."

Kagome nodded exhaustedly, despair twisting her insides, "When--Will Grandpa come home?"

"The doctors hope that he'll be out of here in a month, but things may not turn out that way."

At that moment Souta's body fell over, his snoring head landing in Kagome's lap.

"Let's get him out to the car. We all need some sleep."

The ride home was very subdued. Kagome felt dead on her feet as she walked up to her room, her mother carrying her growing brother up to his. The schoolgirl made to change into some nightclothes, but stopped when she saw what lay on her bed.

"Mom," Kagome called softly over her shoulder.

"What is it, Kagome?" Her mother stepped through her open door and saw what Kagome was staring at, "Oh, yes. I took the liberty of buying your dress when I saw Houjou's parents at my dinner party. They told me about his asking you to that formal school dance. I didn't think you'd mind, seeing as it's tomorrow night."

Kagome's mouth hung open slightly, _Houjou's parents said what? And Mom just assumed I'd go with Houjou when he asked me. Well--it isn't like I turn him down very often._

"I-I'm not going with Houjou, Mom."

"Oh?"

Her lips moved mechanically, "I'm going with InuYasha. Tomorrow is the new moon."

"Oh yes, the night he's human." To her surprise her mother brightened considerably, "Well then, I'll have to return this dress."

"Huh?" Kagome gawked as her mother gathered up the dress from her bed.

"Well Dear, since I thought you were going with Houjou I was going for modest here," She pointed out the demure cut of the fabric. "But for InuYasha I'd suggest a more flattering dress. I trust InuYasha."

Kagome flushed, "Mom..."

"So is tomorrow afternoon around six okay?"

She grinned, "Yeah, but we might be getting a little more than my dress. My book bag and everything in it sort of got...destroyed."

"That's fine, Honey. We can't forget InuYasha's outfit either."

Her mother exited the room with the dress, leaving the schoolgirl to pull back the covers and slip into bed. After thinking over the previous day's happenings as she stared out at the thumbnail moon, Kagome cried until she drifted off into a fitful sleep.

- - - -

The next morning's light was dimmed by a thick blanket of fog. Kagome awoke from bed very tired, but also very determined to stop wallowing in the grave of depression she had dug for herself. It was only the goal of getting her mind off of yesterday that made her climb into the shower, change into her sailor-style high school uniform, then go down and prepare breakfast for herself.

"Morning, Mama," Kagome greeted from over her cereal bowl as the elder Higurashi breezed into the kitchen.

"Here, honey--you can use Souta's extra knapsack," She dropped it beside Kagome's chair, then ran to slip her shoes on hurriedly.

"What's up, Mom?" She queried, inwardly praying nothing else had happened.

Her mother rushed over to her, "Sorry that I'm in such a hurry, I've had to arrange some things. Souta will be staying at your aunt Marumi's house so--"

"Aunt Marumi? Why?"

"I'm going to be working more hours to pay for Grandpa's surgery, and on weekends I'll be staying at the hospital, so I really won't be here anymore save for weekday nights. Your Aunt Marumi is retired and I figured you'd be fine; you're in the feudal era more often than the modern one after all."

Kagome blinked, "What about the shrine?"

Mrs. Higurashi sighed, "It'll just have to wait until I can afford to hire help."

Her mother left the house with an easy smile, and Kagome found herself inspired by her mother's refusal to be knocked down even when slapped across the face by a life altering tragedy. She managed a small smile herself as she hiked to school with her near empty backpack slung over one shoulder.

As she walked up the cement path to the front doors of her school she wasn't surprised when her three good friends, Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi, ran out from within the hoards of students milling about to meet her.

"Kagom--Kami! What happened?" Eri exclaimed, eying the bandages all over the girl's body in dismay.

"It's--um--my latest illness. I'm not exactly sure what it's called, but I thought I should try to come to school anyway."

Her friends nodded in understanding, then Yuka pinned her with her famous no-nonsense look, "Kagome, don't tell me it's true that you chose your psycho boyfriend as your date to the dance over _Houjou_."

Kagome laughed humorlessly, surreptitiously trying to walk around the human bulwark her friends formed, but with little success.

Yuka jabbed her with one newly manicured nail, "If you keep doing this to him you're gonna loose him! It won't be long before Houjou realizes there's other game to hunt."

__

Which is what I want, Kagome scowled.

"How can you stick around with some jealous bad-boy when Houjou is loyal, kind, loving..."

As the list went on something in Kagome snapped, and she flared with a furious fervor, "Because I love him, okay! I love InuYasha!"

People had turned to stare at the schoolgirl's paroxysm, and her three friends were speechless as they waited for the girl to catch the breath she had expended.

"I...I have to get some new books," Kagome muttered, shoving past her friends and running, head hung low, through the front doors.

Throughout the morning classes anyone who sat near Kagome was of the opinion that for such an unfortunately disease-ridden girl she surely had the work ethic of a scholar. The girl herself, however, was scolding herself every five minutes when she emerged from la-la land once again, her eyes having bored two holes through the blackboard.

She was beyond help. Needless to say, the distraction of school was just not the same remedy it used to be, and she might as well have stayed and swept the shrine grounds. At least then she wouldn't have to wonder if InuYasha had come back through the well or not.

If Kagome thought she couldn't possibly become more stressed out, she was wrong. Not only would Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi be in her upcoming gym class, but Houjou too. But by that time Kagome was fed up with sitting idly by while her emotions got the better of her, and she strode out onto the lacrosse field in her leotard and sweatshirt with fresh determination.

__

I'm going to tell him. No matter what, today I am telling Houjou that I don't like him as more than a friend.

Her thoughts and her steps ceased abruptly when an old woman in a tracksuit jumped in front of her, "Higurashi Kagome?"

"Hmm?"

The old woman smiled up at her toothily, "Hello. I'm your Physical Education substitute today. You may not know me, but I'm an old friend of your grandfather's."

At the mention of Grandpa, Kagome felt as if a bucket of gelid ice had been dumped down her sweater and was sliding down her spine, "Oh."

"He's told me a lot about you. I expect you'll enjoy helping with today's activity," And with that the sensei hopped off to take attendance.

"Kagome!"

"Oh--" She had been about to say 'oh no', but then she saw that it was Ayumi alone who was coming toward her from under a small coppice at the edge of the sports field, "Ayumi?"

Her friend came to a stop before her, looking contrite, "Kagome...I'm sorry about Yuka this morning--"

"It's okay, Ayumi. I'm sorry too. Things have just been--stressful--lately," Kagome said as they joined the others in their class out on the green. The fog from that morning had cleared, and the sun was shining as a calm breeze blew past them.

"Oh. I hope it's not too bad. You've seemed better lately though. I was surprised when you got into the same high school as us, even with all your absences."

"Higurashi?"

Both girls turned to face a more sheepish Houjou than usual. As he approached them, however, he only had eyes for Kagome.

She drew herself up to her full height as they met each others' eyes, _Alright Kagome, just think of this as another battle against a demon. You're brave enough in the face of Naraku. Houjou is nowhere near as scary!_

With all of her mustered courage she opened her mouth to speak, but at that exact second the sensei called for the class' attention.

"Today's activity is one you all have undoubtedly been waiting for, but I know very few of you are prepared for it. Thankfully, one of your more experienced schoolmates is present for a demonstration. Higurashi Kagome!"

Kagome tensed as all eyes switched to her expectantly, some curious, others skeptical. The sea of students in front of her part to make way for her, and she froze at what she saw.

__

Oh God...

"That's right!" The old woman clapped, "Today we'll be practicing archery. Higurashi, if you'll kindly show everyone how it's done?"

Houjou and Ayumi stared, open-mouthed, as the girl timorously approached the single plastic bow that had been set out for her, several arrows laying in the grass parallel to it. Kagome's entire body went torpid as she stood looking down at the familiar equipment as if it were a grenade with the pin pulled.

__

What am I supposed to do? None of them know about my purity arrows or the two years worth of battles I've fought on the other side of the well, She panicked inwardly; there didn't seem to be any way to escape this.

A gentle hand touched her taut shoulder. The sensei's face loomed beside her, smiling, "Don't be modest. Your grandfather has boasted to me of your skills for nearly a year since he began teaching you."

Even as Kagome ogled the target that had been erected across the field, her nerves wracking, the thought of her grandfather began to steel the faith she had in herself and that she so desperately needed. She could feel the eyes of all of her classmates burning into her as she stood there indecisively.

__

It's okay. I just have to keep calm and not put any miko energy into the arrows.

She glanced down at the modern bow and began to recall all of the battles she'd fought. To her amazement, she found that an untapped reservoir of courage was taking hold of her. She stood stock still before the bow, the quaking in her limbs slowly receding as she became more sure of herself.

Just when her classmates suspected she'd become paralyzed, Kagome swept up her bow and one arrow, handling them as if they were nothing but extensions of her arms. She nocked the arrow, and had only just pulled the bowstring back when she let it fly. The plain arrow soared on a perfect horizontal until it struck the target dead center. It had all been done with such celerity; it might have taken less than less three seconds.

"What an arm!" Someone exclaimed.

Before anyone else could give voice to their awe, Kagome coolly nocked her second arrow. With a _twong_ it was sent speeding after its predecessor, hitting the mark centimeters away from the first one.

It went on, Kagome shooting one bulls-eye after another as the gym sensei looked on with satisfaction. The other students were struck dumb as the schoolgirl they thought they knew let her last arrow fly, her eyes glinting with a fire none of them had ever witnessed there.

When the arrow hit the target the onlookers gasped as it exploded, hay and cloth and the shafts of the other arrows flying out like fireworks before falling to the earth.

__

Oops. I guess I put a little miko power in that one, Kagome thought to herself with an innocent grin.

"Alright! Excellent!" The sensei hollered after she had regained the ability to speak (She had been staring, her jaw slack, at the explosion of the target with Kagome's final arrow). "Now that you know how it's done, everybody come over here and grab a bow while I go set up the targets."

Kagome dropped her bow to the ground, feeling out of place as the flood of high school students swarmed the archery equipment. She had half expected to turn around to see a ferocious demon-slayer with her Hiraikotsu or a handsome hanyou cracking his knuckles, but all that met her eyes was a very excited Houjou.

"Higurashi, I never knew you could shoot like that! You didn't even break a sweat." He was gazing at her with adoration, the same way InuYasha had only two nights ago, "That look you got when you fired the last arrow--I've never seen that look in your eyes before."

Kagome blushed at his ardent praise, though she didn't lower her chin, and met his eyes stubbornly. The adrenaline rush of the archery demonstration had inflated her with a courage she hadn't realized she had a rein over, and she wasn't about to waste the perfect opportunity to divert his affections away from her.

"Houjou--"

"Hey, Higurashi!" Both Kagome and Houjou turned toward the blaring voice.

Stomping toward them was renowned slacker and tough guy Burimoudou, and his hooded brown eyes were trained on Kagome, a cruel smirk playing across his mouth.

"You're a real shot, Higurashi. How'd you get so good with that bow and arrow? Did one of your boyfriends teach you?"

Kagome stood her ground as he laughed in her face. Houjou clenched his fists.

"When are you gonna figure out that it's not worth it to cheat on your boy-toy with someone like Houjou, here. Your time would be much better spent with me," Burimoudou made to grab her, but Houjou quickly sidestepped in front of Kagome, keeping his meaty hand in check.

"Leave her alone, Buri. She's too good for me, so I'd hate to think where that puts you," Houjou bit out.

"Too good for me, huh?" Burimoudou's amusement seemed to pique as he balled one fist, "Try sayin' that to me after I've beaten your face in, punk."

Kagome looked between the two boys with intense trepidation. Experience was telling her this wasn't going to turn out very different from many of InuYasha and Kouga's meetings. A small crowd of students that had left their bows to watch the scene had gathered about them. Kagome knew she had to intervene.

"Don't worry, Higurashi. Houjou won't be much competition for me after I'm finished with him," Buri sneered.

"Get back, Kagome," Houjou warned her in a tone that was most unlike his.

Kagome, however, was not to be ordered around or deterred by two testosterone driven human boys. She hastily stepped around Houjou and planted herself between the two, doughtily placing one of her hands on each boy's chest to hold them back.

"No, God dammit! I'm not some piece of meat to kill each other over! And I'm not cheating on InuYasha with Houjou or anybody else. Get a clue Koug--er, Burimoudou. Get lost."

Both boys blinked at her outburst, fist fight all but forgotten.

"Hmph. Your loss," Burimoudou huffed as he stalked off, but not before throwing a dagger-filled glare at Houjou. The gathered crowd slowly dispersed.

Kagome was breathing hard when she heard Houjou's voice from behind her, "InuYasha...he's whose taking you to the White Day Dance tonight."

Kagome cringed as a sympathy pain constricted her heart. She may have discovered new courage for herself, but she was still Kagome, and she turned around to lay a comforting hand on Houjou's shoulder. She was about to destroy all his delusions of being with her once and for all--hopefully.

"My parents saw him at your house a couple of nights ago at your mother's dinner party, but they didn't really tell me anything more than that he looked foreign."

"Houjou--"

"No, Higurashi, it's fine. You're right. You aren't just something to win over. You have the right to choose who to be with."

Kagome smiled sadly, genuinely regretful of the way things had turned out for him, "Houjou...I'm sorry. Please know that...our friendship means a lot to me."

Houjou sighed, "I understand." Then, to Kagome's bewilderment, he chortled, "Well, I'll be going to the dance with my friends anyway, so at least I'll finally get to meet the famous InuYasha. I'm sure he wouldn't mind giving me just one dance with you."

The schoolgirl sweatdropped, _I wouldn't be so sure about that._

Houjou was shuffling his feet, and Kagome watched helplessly as he drew something out of his sweatpants pocket.

"Don't take this as being rude, Higurashi, I just wanted to get you a present for White Day," He said, proffering the little wrapped package.

Kagome tried to mask her exasperation as she held up her hands, pushing it away from her gently, "That was very thoughtful of you Houjou, but I--"

"Kagome!" Three girls' voices called in unison, curtailing her refusal of Houjou's gift.

Running across the green were none other than Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi, all of them in some stage of horror or anger, not one of them slowing down as they drew nearer. The miko braced herself.

"What do you think you're doing?" Yuka shouted as she and the others barreled into Kagome, grasping her arms.

Somewhere in the fray one of the girls lost her balance, and in the struggle to pull Kagome aside something unexpected happened.

- - - -

"It's just a stretched ligament. You shouldn't have any trouble walking, though I can't be certain about that judging by all your other scrapes. I'll just be going to get your painkillers," The nurse bustled off to another room to get Kagome's medicine.

Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi had escorted Kagome to sickbay after her rather nasty fall. The word 'sorry' had become hackneyed, and by now they had stopped repeating it to her.

"I can't believe you dumped Houjou," Yuka grumbled from her chair.

Kagome frowned, "We were never together in the first place!"

"Calm down, Kagome. Yuka doesn't know what she's saying," Ayumi tried placatingly, but Kagome noticed she and Eri looked rather put out as well.

Yuka gave a snort of umbrage, "Were you and InuYasha dating seriously this whole time?"

"N-no. I mean..." _What do I mean? Ugh! I don't want to think about him right now, _Kagome heaved a frustrated sigh.

Yuka crossed her arms, "I just don't see how you could pick _him_ over Houjou."

"Yuka...," Eri said carefully.

Kagome glowered at the girl, "You don't even know him! Not like I do! I've been InuYasha's friend for almost two years, and he's a better man than I could wish for. I'd choose him over Houjou even on his worst of days." _Kami, that's really how I feel, isn't it?_

"_Just_ his friend, Kagome?"

She turned to Eri, and her cheeks pinked, "W-Well...not exactly."

Three pairs of eyes glanced at one another before the girls leaned into their friend, "Enlighten us."

Kagome swung her feet nervously where she sat on the examination table. Her friends were all staring at her expectantly, "We--um--kind of...kissed."

Her friends were out of their seats and in her face immediately.

"When did this happen?"

"Kagome, why didn't you tell us?"

"Was it so romantic? Was he shy? Outdoors or indoors?"

Kagome was blushing furiously, "Not too long ago. I-It was raining out, and we were talking;" _And he was licking my wounds, _"He felt bad about something that happened earlier." _He was poisoned pretty badly. He held me close to him. He told me he was afraid. _"Then we just--"

"Made out?" Yuka interjected slyly.

"What? No! I...I dunno. I've never kissed a guy before."

Her friends' mouths dropped, "You mean...he gave you your first kiss?"

"Yes," Kagome answered in a meek voice. She didn't think it was possible for her blush to worsen, but it did.

"So are you guys going out now?" Ayumi asked dreamily.

Kagome thought, a faint frown line marring her brow, "I don't really know what's going on with us now."

"Kagome--don't tell me you pushed him away when he kissed you," Yuka insinuated disbelievingly, her eyes spurning her.

__

Oh my God! How did she know?

Kagome's face must have been a portrait of blatant guilt, because Yuka's expression darkened, "You did. Not a good move, Kagome. Breaking away from a kiss is a big no-no, especially when this guy has his ex-girlfriend to go back to."

Kagome stiffened, _Kikyou..._

"Did you not want him to kiss you or something?" Eri asked confusedly.

"Yes--I mean no!" _Oh Kami, what have I done? What if InuYasha thinks I'm rejecting him? What if he's with Kikyou right now?_

Kagome suddenly felt sick to her stomach. Luckily the nurse chose that moment to come back in, bearing gifts of pills and a cool glass of water.

- - - -

Going home from school that day took longer than it normally would have. The fact that she now had a bit of a limp and could not run caused her to miss the bus, but she decided to ply the distance herself rather than wait for the next one.

Kagome's head was spinning as she made her way back to the shrine. She was unsure if InuYasha would even come for the dance, promise or no promise. Some part of her wanted him to break his word, and if he did she wouldn't have blamed him. The fault, as far as she was concerned, lay with her alone.

In hindsight she saw her decision to push him away as foolish. She loved him, but she'd let her fears and qualms get the better of her and broken away from the kiss that she'd so longed for. Now the only fear she realized was the chance that she might not ever get to tell InuYasha how stupid she had been.

A sudden and very chill wind slapped Kagome across the face, putting her thoughts to rest as she held her skirt down.

"Not more rain," Kagome groaned upon seeing the penumbra of the sky above her. _Oh great, I'm going to start crying again._

She most likely would have had not the mournful creak of a gate distracted her, and when she turned toward the origin of the sound she felt as if she really had been slapped across the face.

"The cemetery," Kagome breathed, watching as the open gate she and Houjou had walked through just days ago swung on it's rusty hinges at the indiscriminate mercy of the wind.

She walked through the gate, the only thing on her mind as she made for Sesshoumaru's tomb the undeniable need to quench her curiosity. She limped toward the zenith of the hollow hill where the mound of carved stone stood, rather how she supposed Sesshoumaru would have, imposingly and apocalyptically, still as stone against the steadily darkening sky.

__

Will I be coming here to visit Grandpa by this time next year? She thought, looking around at the graves as she neared Sesshoumaru's.

She wasn't sure what she meant to accomplish by coming back to his tomb, but she had to try. Something strange was going on with Sesshoumaru in the Sengoku Jidai, and she would take this opportunity to find out anything she could, even if it meant combing through that epitaph until it started pouring. When she reached the top of the hill, however, all of her plans were candidly forgotten.

"Toutousai?"

Standing before the colossal memorial, his outstretched fingers brushing the name of the inuyoukai lord, was a slightly more hoary looking Toutousai than she remembered. There was no mistaking it in Kagome's mind as he turned, his bugged out eyes fixed on her.

"I was wondering when I'd run into you, Kagome," The old sword smith said in his spacey voice.

"Did you--come across the well?" She asked him dazedly.

"No, I did not come through your magic well."

She fish-mouthed at him for a couple of seconds, "Then...you must be, what, a thousand years old?"

Toutousai laughed, holding his stomach, "You flatter me!"

Kagome walked up to stand beside him when he turned to lay his shriveled hand upon the gravestone once more, "Um, Toutousai, what are you doing here visiting Sesshoumaru's grave?"

He turned his lamp-like gaze her way, "I could be asking you the very same thing, young missy."

Kagome resisted the urge to whack the old geezer. _Still as frustrating as ever, I see, _"Well, I asked you first."

Toutousai ran his hand over the ancient Kanji etched into the tomb's face, "I'm not here for Sesshoumaru. I'm here visiting my swords."

"S-Swords?"

"Yes. The brother fangs, Tenseiga and Tessaiga."

"Te-Tessaiga?" Kagome parroted shakily, her knees giving way as it dawned on her, "InuYasha--InuYasha's dead?"

Kagome gasped for breath, hardly able to believe what she'd heard. It had been unsettling enough seeing the tomb of someone she knew to be alive and killing, but she had been satisfied that InuYasha had remained living by the lack of his grave. Even the simple fact that Sesshoumaru was dead had mollified her, leading her to believe that InuYasha may have been victorious in a final battle with his supercilious older brother. She had been scared to death by the possibility that InuYasha might be no longer, and now that her nightmare had come true she felt she might die herself. His grave may not have been there, but just the fact that InuYasha had been separated from Tessaiga--that was acquired by Sesshoumaru no less--attested to his certain death.

__

Is he okay? Where is he? Oh, InuYasha!

Toutousai kneeled down beside her as tears began to roll freely down her cheeks, "Now, now...no need to turn on the waterworks. InuYasha is alive on the other side of the well, is he not?"

"I don't know that!" Kagome screamed at him angrily, almost hysterically. "Oh God!"

Toutousai grew nervous as the girl sobbed harder, "Calm down now. I'm sure there's nothing to fret about. Is there anything you wish to know?"

Kagome paused, sniffling, "What...would I wish to know?"

"Perhaps when InuYasha's death occurred?"

Kagome sobered quickly, wiping at her moist eyes, "You were there?"

"Not per say, Myouga came and told me about what he saw after it happened," He told her, a far away look in his eyes.

"Well, when did he die?" Kagome pressed urgently, her hands shaking.

"Three years to the day after you first came through the magic well."

Kagome let out the breath she hadn't known she'd been holding, tears flowing anew, _It's bad enough that I have a countdown to when Grandpa will die, but now InuYasha too._

"Toutousai," Kagome pinned him with her austerest glare, "Tell me what happened."

He helped her to stand as best he could, "That's quite a tale your asking for, little miko."

"What's the time?"

She watched as he tipped his beak of a nose toward the crepuscular pool of light that was the sun among the mass of gray storm clouds.

"It's gettin' on five-thirty."

"Five-thirty...," _Oh no! I have to leave to go shopping with Mom! _"Oh, Toutousai, I have to be somewhere. Can I meet you sometime later this week to talk?"

"That would be advisable. Come to my shop tomorrow around noon and we'll talk over tea."

Kagome nodded, her feelings about discussing InuYasha's death over tea more than ambiguous, "Okay, tomorrow's fine. Where's your shop?"

"It's only a block away. You know the antique swords shop around the corner?"

"Yeah, I know it," _I should've known the owner of that place would be some senile old sword lunatic._ "I'll come in tomorrow around noon. I've got to run."

"Alright. Goodbye." Toutousai waved to the girl as she made her way down the hill and out of the cemetery, when suddenly he remembered something important, "Oh--wait!"

But it was too late; she had already disappeared, "Oh well, she'll probably figure it out. She was always bright, that one." he then turned back to rest his hand on the grave stone.

Kagome managed to limp home before the downpour started, all the while wondering what kind of story she could possibly be in for the next day. She arrived home to her mother only a little paler than usual, and the two left the shrine as planned as soon as she had assured her mother that she was fine, off to get her and InuYasha's outfits.


	7. Expiation

Expiation

After Kagome had fled down the well, InuYasha had not returned to the village. He'd hunkered down by the well, peering over its wooden lip until the crescent moon sank into the horizon and the sun began to rise, and even then he did not leave the clearing of the Bone Eater's Well.

As the inhabitants of Kaede's village awoke to start another day's work, the inuhanyou after whom their forest was named was to be found stretched out on his stomach with his head in his hands, only a few scant feet from the waterless well.

A bird chirped nearby, causing his fuzzy dog ears to flick once as he continued to glare at the well as if looks unraveled the tightly woven secrets of females.

InuYasha was at a loss. He just couldn't figure out what had made it go so awry. He'd been telling himself all night not to keep dwelling on that kiss, but nevertheless that kiss was what he'd thought about the entire night. He wasn't realizing for the first time that she had a power over him that had nothing to do with his prayer beads.

"I don't understand," The hanyou grumbled to no one in particular. "Why'd she push me away?"

__

When we were--doing that--it felt like she was enjoying it just as much as I was, He thought with a sigh, recalling that rainy evening; how it felt to be ripped out of paradise.

__

'We can't,' Those two words cut him to the quick. 'I--'

InuYasha's brow furrowed, "What had she been about to say?"

__

I'm sorry? I'm scared? I can't force myself to pretend to love a dirty hanyou?

InuYasha cringed, _Maybe--maybe I disappointed her. Maybe she had higher expectations._

InuYasha could almost hear the thoughts rattling around as he shook his head, growling, "This is Kagome! I know her! It doesn't feel like it right now, but..."

He buried his face in his arms, and for the umpteenth time his thoughts returned to that night and Kagome's kiss.

__

I meant what I said to her though, even if I was poisoned.

He held her fragile human body close against his, 'I never knew this kind of fear until I--I realized your getting hurt was a possibility.'

InuYasha had always loved Kagome's scent, but two nights ago, when he touched his nose to her skin, the smell of her sent shivers of inebriation running up and down his entire body.

InuYasha groaned, "Why is she so damn forgiving? Takakuri, good? Ha! What youkai that uses some weird hypnosis like he does could be good? Just because he didn't slaughter those villagers doesn't mean he isn't as bad as Sesshoumaru."

The sun had been fully up for hours now, the shadow of the old well moving and changing before his eyes. A rabbit bounded out of the forest, but as soon as it saw him laying there, it scampered away in terror as he pursued his introspective pondering.

__

It was the damn poison. The snake venom made me do it--made me get so close to her. But when she kissed me, InuYasha keened involuntarily, _the poison wasn't so bad that I couldn't have stopped. I could've--I just didn't._

"Maybe it's better she ended it when she did," He tried to convince himself. "I wouldn't want the others makin' fun of her. Well--Sango wouldn't but the pervert would. And all the humans and demons who hate hanyous...they already ridicule her just for befriending me."

__

That's right. His mind seemed to taunt him, _You're a filthy, half breed abomination. You don't have the right to touch her._

He clenched his fists over the blades of grass, "Why shouldn't I be allowed to touch her; to want her?"

He was distracted by the familiar scent of his own blood. He relaxed his hands, finding four weeping orifices where his claws had pierced his flesh.

His mind seemed to have the last laugh, _Hmph. That's what I get for wanting a miko, the purest of human maidens._

The hanyou wiped his blood on the grass, the wounds already starting to heal.

Kagome was a miko, just like Kikyou had been. She was his first love's reincarnation, after all. InuYasha wondered if maybe it was Kikyou that made Kagome break away from the kiss.

__

Kikyou...sometimes having both her and Kagome here makes me ill, he thought dourly, recalling all the times his encounters with the resurrected priestess had made Kagome jump down the very well he was pining in front of.

"But...Kagome has always stayed by my side, even when I couldn't chose between her and Kikyou. She knows perfectly well that I can't just erase my past."

Nothing could make him completely forget Kikyou, even the sweetness of Kagome's lips. So long ago they had fallen in love with one another, and it felt like only yesterday that Naraku had torn them apart.

The spot where Kikyou's arrow had pierced his chest seemed to burn at the thought, _Kikyou would never have taken me as I am--as a hanyou. The only way we could have been together was through the power of the Shikon no Tama; if I had become a weakling--become human._

"Kagome...I've grown to care for her as much as--no, more than--I cared for Kikyou. Even if Naraku had never come between us, I doubt I would have grown to care for Kikyou as I do Kagome."

Memories of the two years he'd spent with Kagome played over in his brain at random, _We've never said we love each other using words but...sometimes when she looks at me; and when we hold hands when we're alone..._

InuYasha's nose twitched, and just as he picked up the scent the monk called out to him, "They say only those who have gone truly mad hold conversations with themselves."

The hanyou's cheeks pinked, "Shut up."

InuYasha wasn't sure where exactly the wealth of negative emotions toward Miroku had come from, but it grew stronger with every step closer the Houshi came to him, eventually sitting down beside the sprawled form in red fire-rat robes.

The silence between the two was fraught with unresolved contention, the gently clanking rings of Miroku's shakuju making the only noise as InuYasha waited for the lecture he had come to deliver.

His thoughts were bollixed when he found that Miroku didn't plan on lecturing him just yet, "Shippou's doing better. The wounds inflicted by Kagome's miko arrow haven't totally healed yet, but they should have by tomorrow."

"And you're telling me this--why?"

"Thought you'd like to know."

InuYasha's snort echoed around the glade, "I bet Sango told you that to prove your worth you had to get me to go through the well."

Miroku gave him a subdued smile, "Alas, I came here of my own volition."

InuYasha frowned at him, "She's _still_ not talking to you?"

The monk's eyes grew forlorn, "No, she has not yet deemed me worthy, but I will continue doing all I can in hopes of appearing acceptable in her eyes."

__

Hmph. I guess I can at least listen_ to whatever it is he has to say, _InuYasha thought as he looked over at the still somewhat bruised face of one of his few friends, his own face softening as he realized the futility of his reclusive querulousness.

"All right monk, I won't kill you, so you can tell me whatever it is you got on that dirty mind."

InuYasha could have sworn the monk grinned, but when he spoke it was with earnestness, "I came to apologize."

"For?"

"Well--Sango and I disturbed you in the middle of a compromising situation the other night. I know how you are about feelings--" His voice gave out when he spied InuYasha's inflamed countenance.

"How am I?" The hanyou snarled, sitting up.

"Well--you don't like to show them." He then added in a mutter, "I can't say that applies to your more truculent feelings."

InuYasha, however, was not paying attention, _Ugh, the monk's got a point. I've spent too long keeping my feelings from Kagome. She probably didn't know what to think when... _His face reddened a bit more.

"InuYasha," The hanyou started when Miroku addressed him. "I'm going to give you some advice, man to man," He looked into his friend's golden eyes, "Stop moping around."

"And what? Go down the well?" InuYasha said restively. Miroku was pushing him a little too far out of his comfort zone.

"That's not what I'm saying. I trust you to make up with Kagome, whatever the reason may be that she has left, but for now the most expedient course would be getting up and doing something--something to take your mind off of Kagome."

InuYasha's face was shadowed, but when he turned it upward Miroku was a little surprised to find not anger or nonchalance, but poignant ruth. The Houshi was even more taken aback by the simple words the hanyou uttered, "I can't."

Miroku blinked, "Pardon?"

"I just--can't fucking get my mind off of her." He looked up at the speechless monk, becoming irked that he wouldn't say what he was thinking, "Oh, so you think I don't deserve her, huh? That I need to stop thinking about her? Well--I can't! I can't stop thinking about the way she looks, about the way she feels; the way she sounds; the way she smells; the way she tastes!"

InuYasha's volume escalated with each word until he was standing, bellowing at the top of his lungs. In the calm that followed the hanyou breathed heavily, showing Miroku his back. One benefit of InuYasha's harangue was that several things had been made clear to the monk, and he would never tell him, but he took pity on his friend.

"I take it you and Kagome shared a kiss?"

InuYasha cringed. When he turned to face him his cheeks were as pink as ever they had been, "It was all Sango's fault anyway! Always leaving us alone on purpose."

"You knew about that?"

InuYasha sputtered, "Of course! You'd have to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to! What I'm wondering is how the hell _you_ knew."

"Shippou told me," He said with all dignity.

"That runt knows too much," InuYasha grumbled, though his eyes betrayed that he wasn't actually angry.

"So," Miroku regained his attention, "What went wrong?"

"You mean with the--the kiss?" He managed.

"Yes," The monk waited with steepled fingers. For once the lecherous sparkle in his gaze was absent, or as absent as such an innateness could be.

InuYasha plopped back down to the grass, eyes glazed over, "She just..."

"Yes?" He prompted.

The hanyou sighed, and his body seemed to sag, "Stopped."

Miroku's eyes widened knowingly, then he grew puzzled, "I have no idea why she might've done that. I am positive she feels very strongly for you. Unless--perhaps she is torn in her feelings between you and another."

The temperature immediately increased, and InuYasha brandished his fist, "What? Are you saying she's in love with that wolf? Or that human kid?"

Miroku sweatdropped, "No! No--no of course not."

"Keh!"

The monk swiped his brow in relief before looking back to him, "InuYasha--"

"What now?"

Miroku waved his hand, "Peace, my friend, peace. Just as Kagome once told me to talk my problems out with Sango, so am I obligated to tell you that we would all be better off if you went to see Kagome."

"You and Sango isn't the same as me and Kagome."

Miroku lowered, "InuYasha..."

"Feh," The hanyou stood up, his eyes alighting on the well. "Fine."

Just as InuYasha reached the lip however, he stopped dead, looking up. Miroku followed his gaze to see one of Kikyou's shinidamachuu cloud-skimming overhead, a captive soul in its clutches.

"InuYasha, don't--" Miroku started, but when he looked back to the well the hanyou was already gone, but he hadn't gone down it. A rictus contorted the Houshi's mouth, "Sango is going to kill me."

- - - -

It had been near to an hour since he'd left the Bone Eater's Well, chasing the soul-collector over acres of green forest sprinkled with the occasional blooming sakura.

He could smell her; she was close. It wasn't the smell of Kikyou or the soil from her grave however, that made him rip the very air in his haste, but the scent of her spilt blood that singed his nostrils and made his own blood seethe.

The white demon dove beneath the canopy ahead of him, and InuYasha let himself fall beneath it as well, the leaves parting like mossy waters until his feet made contact with the earth. He flattened the dirt under his feet as he charged toward the clearing ahead that was swimming with shinidamachuu.

"Kikyou..."

InuYasha halted as he emerged from the trees to see the miko facing away from him, kneeling down before a large pond, most of which was indistinguishable as it melded with the shade of the trees. The undead priestess was covered in blood, her tattered white chihaya imbrued with it. She didn't seem to have noticed him as he stood, gazing at her with a statue's stillness. Her shinidamachuu swept past her, dropping souls into her body in order to enable healing.

Kikyou gazed into her reflection that shimmered in the pond's surface with the pale glitter of death. The pink petals fell, the surreal picture wavering with the lightest touch to the water. Kikyou blinked as a fresh soul was dropped before her, as if she were coming out of an enchantment. She cradled the soul in her outstretched hands, holding the sphere before her face as its otherworldly light stroked the water's surface, yet did not ripple it.

InuYasha peered over her shoulder as he stole up behind her. In the water he was disturbed to see that her face was entirely blocked out by the soul she was absorbing, her lengthy black tresses falling about a bright, featureless orb. The sensation didn't last long however, for the soul disappeared into her body, revealing the quixotic countenance of his first love.

After two years her face did not seem to resemble Kagome's as it once had; having two women in his life that looked so similar and yet were such altogether different people had made their few physical dissimilarities more distinct in his eyes. There was a discrete curviness in Kagome's nose that Kikyou did not possess, and their eyes held countless contrasts. InuYasha flouted his naiveté at ever mistaking Kagome for Kikyou, for now he knew that the two were just as different as he and Sesshoumaru, related though they were. It wasn't blood that connected the two mikos however, but the soul they shared.

Kikyou sighed, her eyes fluttering open and alighting back on her reflection, only to see a silver-haired figure looming behind her. Her eyes widened, "InuYasha?"

She wheeled about and stood, her shinidamachuu swimming around them eerily as she faced him with her arm resting over a rather large tear in her shirt, "You would come upon me in my indecency?"

InuYasha repudiated the accusation, "No! Kikyou, I--who hurt you? Tell me who did this to you."

Kikyou turned away from him, letting her arm fall to her side now that he could only see her back, the great splashes of blood that soaked the snowy cloth visible whenever the breeze parted her curtain of ebony hair.

"Please, Kikyou, you have to tell me who it was that hurt you," InuYasha's voice contained an overtone of desperation.

Kikyou stared down at the pond with narrowed eyes, watching her former love's reflection as she spoke, "And if I told you? Would you make another promise to me? A promise to hunt my attacker down and make them suffer as they have made me."

InuYasha stared at her back, speechless. She didn't move as the wind rustled the sanguine fabric of her hibakama, and they were silent for a time, weltering in their own thoughts.

Kikyou's voice was the first to break the silence, "Do you know the location--of Naraku?"

InuYasha moved a bit closer to her, "Is he who hurt you, Kikyou?"

The miko closed her eyes, a pained expression upon her face as she grimaced, "You did not answer my question."

"And you didn't answer mine," He retorted.

Kikyou's shoulders sagged as she acquiesced to his recalcitrance, "It was the wind sorceress, Kagura, who inflicted these wounds upon me. I'd heard of her planning to betray Naraku, but not until recently did I discover that she had met with success. The wind sorceress took his fragment of the Shikon no Tama."

InuYasha blinked, "Kagura has Naraku's fragment? Why can't Naraku just kill her? He has her heart, doesn't he?"

Kikyou continued staring at him in the pond, his hand frozen midway to touching her as he stared at the back of her head, "I too, thought that. Then I found out that Kagura, in her betrayal, also managed to take back her heart from Naraku."

"Shit," InuYasha gasped.

"This act of hers was not in my best interests, and so I endeavored to destroy her, thus regaining the Shikon no Kakera, which I would then have returned to the severely weakened Naraku. Unfortunately, I failed in retrieving the fragment. A great conspiracy has arisen among Naraku's reincarnations, and he has fled with the help of the few still loyal to him. No one knows where he has taken refuge."

"And Kagura is looking to kill him," InuYasha added, comprehension dawning on him. Kikyou saw his face become angered on the surface of the pond, "Kikyou, why did you try to get the fragment from her? Kagura could have killed you!"

It was then that he reached for her, his hand gently grasping her shoulder. Kikyou whirled on him, slapping his hand away harshly, not seeming to care about her torn shirt anymore as she glared at his afflicted face.

"Keep away from me!" She spat, pushing him away with a shock of miko power.

InuYasha stumbled back, the small burst of energy tingling his chest as he stared, stunned, at the angry woman in front of him, _Kikyou, do you still hate me?_

InuYasha's guilt overwhelmed him. What had he done to deserve anything but her hate? He'd failed to trust her, thus causing her death. Even after she'd been resurrected he'd secretly wished her back to her sleep of death, the place where she was meant to be.

At that moment, as he reminisced about all the misfortunes that had befallen them, he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms as he had always wanted to do to her when she'd been alive, and tell her she was safe. Surely with all his power he could save her from the terror of her death, the pain of the specious betrayal. If only he could reach her, coax out the Kikyou she had once been that he knew lay deep below the surface of the tormented, hate-filled creature she had been forced to become.

She gritted her teeth, glowering at him abhorrently, "Is my reincarnation not here?"

InuYasha blinked, _Is that what she's mad about? _"Kagome? She's not--no. I followed your soul-collector here alone."

Kikyou froze, her eyes gradually softening as she looked at him, "Oh."

InuYasha drew close to her, securing her in his arms as she stared up at him with wide brown eyes, "Kikyou, let me protect you. I promised you I would protect you. I'll kill that bitch so that she won't hurt you again."

Kikyou leaned against his shoulder where he held her, nostalgia taking hold of her as she inhaled his scent, "Baka--I will be the one to destroy the wind sorceress and claim the jewel shard."

InuYasha grasped her shirt through her hair, holding her tighter, "I'm the one who protects you."

Kikyou's lips turned up in a quiet smile at his fervent words, "Will you hold as true to your other promises? Would you still come to Hell with me, even if I asked it of you this instant?"

InuYasha muscles tensed around her, but he nodded his head. He glimpsed a sad light in his eyes as he stared at himself in the pond, "I would die with you--if you asked it of me."

Kikyou sighed against him, "I do not plan to take you now, but when we defeat Naraku I shall bring you with me to Hell."

Her words reverberated in his mind as she put her lips close to his ear, "But I will ask of you one thing for now. If you would...stay with me a bit longer."

He closed his eyes, "Of course."

He felt Kikyou's hold on him tighten as she returned his hug, but then she pushed herself away from him slightly, looking up into his eyes.

"Kikyou? What--" He started uncertainly, but anything else he might have said was drowned into silence by Kikyou gently putting her lips over his.

The kiss was so tender, and a part of him wanted to lose himself in the memories of the past that had been tugged out from under them, let them inundate him for all eternity. But somehow, after sharing a kiss with Kagome only a little more than a day ago, the touch of her lips wasn't as pleasant as he remembered it being. It felt wrong.

He pulled his lips away from hers, chagrined by the irony of denying her kiss just as Kagome has refused his, "No, Kikyou."

She looked up at him with shock for a hot second before her brows knitted, brown eyes blazing, "What do you mean, 'no'? You are mine, InuYasha!"

She shrugged his arms off, backing away from him until she was in the shoal, the legs of her hibakama getting drenched. InuYasha ran in to take hold of her before she went any further into the pond, his own feet immersed as he waded toward her.

She glared at him furiously, "What is your game, InuYasha? What is your purpose in coming here?"

She tried to fight his hold, but when she looked up at him, expecting an answer, she was surprised to find that he would not meet her gaze. She ceased her struggles, her heavy breathing slowing up as her heart grew heavy. His arms slackened when he realized her anger had abated, but the bitterness in her eyes was equally disquieting. She extricated herself from him, taking a few steps back.

They stood facing each other in the pond, the water having calmed around them as Kikyou met his golden gaze, her own eyes looking more dead than they ever had before.

"Why have you sought me out?" She asked him weakly.

InuYasha contemned the question. She had spoken it as if she already knew. "Kikyou--all those years ago...would you only have been with me as a--as a human?"

I light breeze played with her hair as she answered him levelly, "That is the only way I could have ever been with you, InuYasha. If you had refused to use the Shikon no Tama to become human, thus destroying the jewel, we could never have hoped to be together."

InuYasha wasn't satisfied by her answer, "What I mean is--would you have only loved me as a human?"

__

I have to know. I can't loose Kagome. I'd do anything to prevent it. I'd do anything to be with her--to make her happy.

Kikyou's monotonous voice intruded on his thoughts, "You wish to know whether I think Kagome will only love you as a human."

InuYasha felt as if a caliginous cloud had descended over them, restricting his breathing. He bent his head, he couldn't meet her eyes.

He heard the water at her feet slosh around before her lukewarm voice reached his ears, "I do not know the girl, but I have seen her blatant affection for you on enough occasions."

Uncertainly, InuYasha raised his chin, and when she looked at him he flinched unintentionally. Her eyes were callous and disdainful, "She is a miko, however, and such a pure maiden and one such as you, tainted with the blood of a youkai, can never be together."

She turned away from him, crossing her arms over the rip in her shirt once more as he stared at her resignedly.

"I suppose it is my fate then," InuYasha spoke in a low growl, standing straight and proud in the shallow waters.

She rounded on him. "Your fate is in my hands. The day Naraku is destroyed is the day you come with me to Hell," She hissed scathingly.

InuYasha sniffed, and found that his usually acute sense of smell was failing to pick up the potent scent of Kikyou's blood. He tilted his nose skyward. The sun was sinking toward the horizon, the sky growing red with the approaching sunset.

He moved his feet through the water, stepping out onto the shore of the pond as Kikyou's shinidamachuu slithered past him, gathering about their mistress. He looked over his shoulder at her, "Well, if I can keep a promise to you, then I can certainly keep my word to Kagome."

With that said, he sped off into the forest, leaving Kikyou standing in the pond with her soul-collectors.

InuYasha ran as fast as his feet would carry him, feeling his demon power fade away a bit more with every inch the sun descended toward the horizon. It took him a lot longer to reach the well going back; his exceptional speed was an attribute of the demon power that was fast leaving him for the night of the new moon.

The gathered legs of his hakama were dry and his hair was still silver when he reach the blessedly empty glade just beyond the village, and he jumped into the well without a backward glance, hoping he wasn't too late for Kagome's dance.

He was thankful that the sun had not yet completely set when he was able to leap strait up and out of the well, bounding up the stairs to slide open the door of the well house. He froze on the threshold, staring out at the rain coming down in heavy sheets, the sound of droplets hitting cement filling his ears.

It wasn't until that second that he remembered the circumstances of his and Kagome's last parting, and a pang of nervous uncertainty hit him hard as he stared across the shrine to her house. His determination to keep his promise to Kagome had blinded him to the consequences of seeing her again, and now he wasn't sure if he was ready.

He glanced back at the well as he held onto the door, but he couldn't make himself go back. No matter how much he may have wanted to go down that well, the thought could never hope to rival his resolve to keep his word to Kagome. It was this acknowledgement that made him shut the door to the well house behind him and sprint through the pouring rain, leaping up onto Kagome's roof to slip in through her window. He cursed the fact that he couldn't smell if she was in there or not; he didn't want to disturb her if she wanted privacy.

Once he had noiselessly dropped inside her dusky room he found it to be empty. He wasn't exactly sure what to do, and was debating whether or not to wait or to go and search for her when something on the bed caught his eye.

It was an opened package containing a white kimono that resembled his fire-rat robes to a degree, or as far as he could tell just by examining the folded fabric from where he stood in front of her window. He approached the bed slowly, wondering at the clothing that he was sure had been tailored for a man about his size when he heard the door swing open. He stopped dead, turning to see Kagome framed in the doorway.

She had frozen too, her eyes locked on him as she gasped, "I-InuYasha!"

Threaded in with his trepidation at what she would do next was a realization that she was no longer wearing her usual casual skirt and shirt, but a white dress of some lovely, silky material that was wrapped about her like a calla lily. He couldn't help but sweep his eyes over the folds of the dress that was such a contrast to her midnight hair as he marveled at the effect a simple change of clothes had on her (and him).

His attention was instantly ripped from her choice of dress when she sniffed, tears forming in her eyes, and ran at him, successfully baffling and knocking the wind out of him all at once when she caught him in a fierce hug.

She was sobbing and babbling almost incoherently into his haori, refusing to let go of him even as the rainwater seeped into her dress, "I'm so glad you came! I was so worried--I was afraid you'd wouldn't come, or that you'd gotten hurt or...I'm just so happy your okay."

"Kagome, what--?" He pulled back enough so that he was still holding her, but could look into her watery eyes, "Why would anything have happened to me?"

She blinked up at him, still clutching at his shirt as if he would fly away at any second, and he brought a single hand up to cup her face, wiping a tear from under her eye with his thumb. A blush crept into her cheeks, and she avert her eyes shyly, casting about the room for anything that might serve as a conversation topic.

"I...um...," Her eyes alighted on the strange white kimono. "That's--uh--yours," She said, a coy smile making her rosy face all the prettier as she indicated the clothes sitting neatly on the bed. "It's for the dance."

InuYasha was too busy staring at the girl in his arms to glance over at it, and he felt his resolve solidifying as he embraced her. Her putting her arms around him, completely unexpected though it was, had been the best thing she could have done to quell the exposed and rejected feelings stirring within him. She wasn't taking her eyes away from his, and his heart was responding enthusiastically. His youkai blood was crying out at her touch while his human side shouted its need for her in much the same way. It became clear to him then that he would do anything to earn her love.

It was time to find out why she'd pulled away from his kiss. He gulped, "Kagome--"

A sudden rapping on her window made them both jump, and Kagome's eyes widened when she saw a certain kitsune bouncing outside her closed window, his entire body soaked from the storm, "Shippou?"

"What the hell?" InuYasha stared as the kit pounded on the glass with his burned hands, Kagome running over to let him in. "How'd he pass through the well?"

She quickly opened her window, snatched the sopping wet kit out of the rain, then pulled him in. The kit looked up at her with distraught eyes, waving his not-so-puffy tail behind him in a panic.

"Kagome!" The young fox did a double take when he saw InuYasha come up on her side, as if he were surprised to see him there. "InuYasha?"

"Shippou, why are you here?" Kagome asked him urgently, the kit's agitation unnerving her.

Shippou blinked away from InuYasha, seeming to remember as he clutched to Kagome's dress, "It's Kagura! She's attacking the village! And Hiraikotsu isn't fixed yet and Kagura brought Naraku's Saimyoushou to poison Miroku if he uses his wind tunnel!"

"Kagura?" InuYasha growled, hot furor roiling in the pit of his stomach as he remembered his meeting with Kikyou.

"We have to help them, InuYasha," Kagome said with finality as she turned to face him.

Just then, a wind that had nothing to do with the storm outside blew through the room, and InuYasha felt the familiar sensation of his demon power falling into dormancy for the night as the dark moon rose in the dreary sky beyond the window. His claws and fangs disappeared as his thick white mane turned inky black, his dog ears turning into human ones. He clenched his jaw as he looked down at Tessaiga, knowing that what had come to him as his father's fang would be useless tonight.

He nodded once to Shippou and Kagome, "Let's go."


	8. Fate and Fortune

Fate and Fortune

In the Sengoku Jidai, the fox kit and his two human companions crawled out of the Bone Eater's Well, all three of them so drenched with rain that had the well not been dry it would surmise it to say they had just gone for a swim in it.

"I sense a jewel fragment--a huge one!" Kagome exclaimed as she hoisted herself over the wooden lip after the hanyou.

Her words tossed InuYasha's memory hours back to his and Kikyou's conversation, and his brow furrowed as the flashes of wind blades illuminated the moonless sky over the village, _So Kagura did steal Naraku's shard. But why is she here?_

"Hurry up you guys! We have to help the others!" Shippou squeaked, bounding off toward the source of the commotion, InuYasha sprinting after him on the tender soles of his human feet.

A strangled yelp from behind made them both stop, and InuYasha saw Kagome fall to the ground. He ran back to her as the kitsune looked between them with a stricken expression.

"Kagome?" The black-haired InuYasha knelt beside her, alarmed.

The miko seemed angry with herself, "I hurt my ankle earlier and I--I can't move very quickly."

Before Shippou or Kagome could say or do anything else, InuYasha pulled her into his arms with a single swift movement. Human though he was, he was anything but average in his strength even then. Shippou glanced at them only once to reassure himself before he was racing off in the direction of the village, InuYasha hot on his furry heels.

Its inhabitants having fled long ago, the village was a wreck, and InuYasha cursed the moonless night again and again as they passed one destroyed hut after another. The brightness of the wind blades intensified as they drew nearer Kaede's hut until one flew right past them. InuYasha ducked behind the side of a roofless hut, two of its walls already having been hacked to pieces. Shippou was shivering, his back pressed flat against the side of the hut as InuYasha set Kagome on her feet so she could peer around the corner.

Poking his head out above hers, the scene was illuminated before his eyes by the light of the wind blades. Kagura was hovering in the midst of a cloud of Saimyoushou, her bloody eyes blazing with a power enhanced by the jewel shard Kagome had sensed Kagura possessed. He narrowed his eyes: he didn't need his youkai-half's powers to see that the wind sorceress had Naraku's Hell Wasps under the same spell she had imposed upon Kouga's comrades so long ago, their lifeless bodies being controlled by her demon fan as she bent them to her every whim.

The wind demoness smiled wickedly, and with a sweep of her sorcerous fan crescent-shaped knives rived the air, glancing off the spirit-barrier that encased Kaede's hut and spinning off into the night. InuYasha started when Kagome pushed him aside, about to charge out into the battle.

"Are you _that_ stupid? Your leg's hurt!" InuYasha hissed as he pinned her against the hut wall, endeavoring not to lower his eyes to her soaking wet and _white_ dress. "I'm human and we don't have any weapons!"

Kagome gave him her angry face, and if the simple wrath of a schoolgirl was enough to inspire fear in the heart of a hanyou, it certainly worked on InuYasha in his human form, "We have to help our friends! And my weapon is in Kaede's hut!"

InuYasha glanced around the corner as he held her down, and sure enough, evading Kagura's wind blades as they stood like sentries to the fore of the hut were Miroku and Kaede, Kirara scorching the air above them as she took out as many Saimyoushou as she could whilst dodging the wind sorceress' desultory attacks. The monk and the ancient miko had almost no opportunities to reciprocate in kind because of the constant threat of wind blades.

"I'll go get your bow," InuYasha told Kagome firmly, making to head out from behind the wall, but his haori got caught on something...

"No! I can't lose you!" Kagome screeched at him as she pulled him back, her grip on his arm nearly painful, but before he could respond to such a declaration Shippou made himself heard by hopping onto his shoulder.

"No one can get inside the hut because of the shield Kaede and Miroku put around it to keep Sango safe!"

Fear sparkled in the brown depths of Kagome's eyes, "We have to do something! Did Kagura just come here to kill us? How can we get her to leave?"

InuYasha said nothing as Kikyou's voice sounded in his head, somehow louder than the din of the battle, _'A great conspiracy has arisen among Naraku's reincarnations, and he has fled with the help of the few still loyal to him. No one knows where he has taken refuge.'_

InuYasha had to admit that Kagura had picked a bad night to attack the whereabouts of Naraku out of them, and what made it even worse was that they had no idea where the bastard was. But even as the three of them stood huddled together indecisively, concealed by the hut wall, Kaede's scream punctuated the sounds of the wind blades' destruction. They all peered around the hut wall once more, watching in horror as one of Kagura's wind blades caught Kaede's shoulder, fresh blood tainting her chihaya as she fell to the ground.

Shippou and Kagome gasped; it wasn't immediately apparent whether she was still alive or not. InuYasha growled all the same (though it sounded rather pitiful in his human form). Already provoked by what Kagura had done to Kikyou, he now tried desperately to escape Kagome's grasp.

"InuYasha, I'll subdue you!" She shouted angrily, trying to wrestle him back behind the hut wall even as tears shimmered in her eyes.

His retort, whatever it may have been, was cut off by something nudging his shoulder, and he, Kagome, and Shippou looked over to see Kirara standing beside them, her huge fangs gleaming.

"I think she wants us to ride her," Kagome said, grasping Kirara's fur.

As soon as Kagome's hand had tangled itself in Kirara's butter-complexioned coat, the fire-cat was airborne. Luckily Kagome's shriek went unheard in the midst of the ruction, and just as Kirara was leaving the ground InuYasha took hold of one of her tails, Shippou clinging to his haori for dear life.

InuYasha closed his eyes against the heat of Kirara's flaming paws as she glided over air, touching down in front of the hut. Its shield had begun to flicker after Kaede had become incapacitated.

The fire-cat skidded to a halt beside Kaede's limp body, and InuYasha immediately let go whereas Kagome continued to use Kirara as a means of support.

"InuYasha!"

At the calling of his name the hanyou looked up at the wind demoness, hatred stirring his heart at the sight of her. He could feel Shippou shaking as he clung to his back. Before InuYasha could tap into the cornucopia of insults he had been saving up, however, Kagura was speaking to him.

"How fortunate that the day I should need my threats to penetrate that dense head of yours you are at your weakest," She derided, her fan poised at the ready. "Tell me where Naraku is!"

Out of the corner of his eye InuYasha glimpsed Miroku trying to telegraph something to him, but he paid no heed, and answered, "We don't know where the hell is he, Kagura, but what I do know is--"

"InuYasha you idiot!" Miroku hissed, slapping a hand to his sweaty forehead. "You should have just told her a random location so we could be rid of her!"

"Take that!"

InuYasha started at the sound of Kagome's yell, and he turned just in time to see her loose an arrow from Kaede's bow. InuYasha's heart missed a beat at the vim in her eyes as she filled the arrow with her miko aura a split second before she let it fly.

Kagura's pupils shrank in fear as the arrow burned its path toward her, the bright pink fire surrounding it frying anything that got too close. In a flash of fan blades however, the Saimyoushou puppets flew in front of her to shield her from Kagome's power, and Naraku's former insects exploded in a violent shower of molten magic.

Kagome didn't even have time to draw breath much less take up another one of Kaede's arrows before the enraged wind sorceress had sent her retaliatory volley of wind blades hurling her way. InuYasha didn't need to think before he did what he had to do. He pushed Kagome out of the way, his chest splitting open as the wind blade hit it, Kagome's scream ringing in his ears as his own blood spurted in front of his fading vision.

- - - -

Kouga had been running for so long that he could no longer feel the earth beneath his feet as his legs pumped, his blood running hot with the energy of the two Shikon no Kakera embedded in his calves. He was flying, truly flying...

It was then that his nose construed the messages of the wind, and his lips curled in a vindictive snarl as the ghastly image of Kagura swam in his mind's eye. He altered his course in the blink of an eye, riding on the wings of the wind toward where he knew the vile demoness who murdered his comrades was, obviously not concerned with such trivial matters such as camouflaging her scent this night.

Kouga barely noticed a thing beyond the bloodthirsty haze that had settled in his brain, not even the redolence of his human inamorata. He heard a girl scream just before he burst out of the trees, not slowing down until he hit his target from behind.

He knew that he'd struck true when the priceless scent of Kagura's blood filled his nostrils, and he savored the feel of his claws in her intestines until she pivoted in midair, swinging her fan. She was fast--faster than he remembered--but not fast enough. Kouga breezed out of harm's way, weaving in and out of the hoards of insects, his own wind battling with hers as he launched himself at her blind spot, his foot connecting with her head.

Kagura was thrown forward, her body slamming into a strange blue barrier that encircled a house. The barrier repelled her in an igneous cloud of sparks, jolting her back and forth before finally evanescing as Kagura fell to the ground.

Kouga was breathing hard, entertaining only a single gruesome thought at the moment, "This is the night you die, sorcerous witch! This is the night I receive blood payment for the deaths of my men!"

The terrified luster in Kagura's crimson orbs only made his charge fiercer, and she pulled one of her feathers from her hair, the giant white obstruction giving Kagura a chance to regain her ground in the time it took Kouga to shred the plume. The wolf youkai gave chase as she eluded his hungry claws, and he danced around the wind blades that she tossed at him with increasing desperation. Even when her blades nicked him on his legs he hardly registered pain; his blood was running as fast as he was, he could smell her death, her heart was inches away.

Her mouth opened in a silent cry as his arm lanced through her chest, piercing her heart as he had done so many times before in the realm of dreams. Extracting his hand from the fatal wound he had inflicted, he reveled in the carmine rivers that gushed down his arm. Kagura descended, falling to her knees as soon as she reached the ground, each breath rattling in her chest like the bell tolls of the afterlife.

Her question was barely audible, "Why?"

He met her tortured eyes, a reluctant feeling of pity creeping through him as she spoke again, "Why do you kill me? We have the same enemy. Shouldn't we fight on the same side?"

Pondering her words, Kouga stepped closer to her, realizing her time was limited. He stopped feet from her, peering down at her afflicted visage. "What does it matter if we share an enemy? It wouldn't even matter if we shared blood; nothing can erase the past. No common goal will make me forget what you did to my pack," He spat.

Kagura swallowed a great lungful of air with difficultly, and he flinched when she reached out for his bloody hand, grasping it with both of hers. Her fingers slipping in her own hot blood, she held her killer's hand, looking up into his eyes.

"Kouga," Her voice was scarcely a whisper above the wind, "You want vengeance. I slaughtered your pack. Would you...would you not slay mine as well?"

They stared into each other's eyes for a long moment, and it seemed the only other presence with them was an impatient death, though in actuality Kagome had her eyes glued on the sorceress and the ookami. Miroku had brought Kaede into the hut when the barrier had failed, and Shippou had followed.

Finally Kouga nodded to her, and she let her hand fall away from his as her body slumped over, and she ceased to draw another breath. Her fan closed of its own volition as the carnage that was Naraku's Hell Wasps lost all animation, becoming earthbound at gravity's mercy. Wiping his hand on his pelt, Kouga gasped when Kagura's body evaporated, leaving only two things in its bloody wake: her fan, and a nearly whole fragment of the Shikon no Tama.

"Kouga!" At the sound of her voice, Kagome instantly won priority inside him, and he turned away from the malignant pearl to face her.

A thousand lifetimes could not have prepared him to see Kagome like this. All else ceased to exist when he laid eyes on her where she sat crouched on the ground. She was an angel, her white gown swirling about her bodice, the likes of which the earth would never again be graced with. Not that he hadn't seen better looking women before (he had), but his feelings for Kagome made her beauty that much more valuable to him, and at that moment he could see every angle, contour, and curve of her beauty.

Kagome must have picked up on this, because next thing she was attempting to hide herself from him, "Th-Thank you, Kouga, for saving us. I don't know what we would've done... "

He ran to her side and bent to clasp her hand in his clean one, "It was no sweat."

He then heard what sounded like a weak groan, and for the first time he saw what exactly it was that Kagome was crouching over, and his eyes widened when he saw the familiar red hinezumi splattered in blood, though the person in it was not directly discernable.

Kagome looked up at the wolf prince nervously as he took a whiff. He gawked at the black-haired, human-eared figure that was most definitely Inukkuro, who seemed to sense the presence of his rival, because he made a sound that could've been a growl, his clawless hands twitching.

"I'll be damned," Kouga said as InuYasha opened his eyes. "Well _hanyou_, sorry to drop in at such an inconvenient time, namely your human night. The new moon, huh?" He glanced between InuYasha and the sky with a vicious smirk. A wolf's appetite for blood was never completely slaked, after all.

InuYasha glared at Kouga, but the action seemed to sap him of the last of his strength; the human went limp with a sigh.

"Kouga...," Kagome said warningly, correctly interpreting the glint in his azure eyes.

"Don't worry Kagome, I'd be a fool not to take advantage of this," And with that the wolf lifted his clean hand, not expecting it to be clean for much longer, but just as he made to thrust his claws through Muttface's heart, InuYasha's angel picked that moment to answer his unuttered prayers.

"NO!" Kagome cried, throwing her body across the unconscious form of the inuhanyou, who remained blissfully ignorant of the goings on around him as a quiet snore escaped him.

"What do you think you're doing, Kagome? Move!" Kouga bellowed, not daring to move his hand any closer lest he injure Kagome.

"Don't, Kouga! You can't kill him!" She pleaded, her eyes filling with tears.

Her anguish doused his bloodlust like a bucket of cold water. Even so, he wasn't about to surrender to a mutt, and a sleeping one at that, "He doesn't deserve you."

"Please, just go!" There was the faintest hint of a threat in her tone, and her grip on InuYasha tightened.

Kouga clenched his teeth, preparing to shove her aside, but as if she had read his mind, Kagome pulled a maneuver that he had not anticipated. She reached for something at InuYasha's waist, and no sooner was there a sound of scraping metal than InuYasha's sword, untransformed, was being brandished at the wolf youkai by the very girl he had spent so many moons pining for.

The fang barely shook in her grasp, "Leave InuYasha alone, Kouga! I won't go with you now and I never will! I swear to God that I'll slice you if you come any closer!"

The ferocity in her eyes as she defended the hanyou stole his breath away. He stared at her speechlessly, unsure if it was her words or her actions or the fact that InuYasha was watching them through bleary eyes that hurt him more.

She dared a step closer to him, and he stiffened as the blade stayed true to Kagome's word. She was truly prepared to fight him, but Kouga knew he could never live with himself if he allowed that to happen.

"I see," Was all he said, and he was surprised at the tenebrosity in his tone of voice. Kagome wore a pained expression, but she did not relent until Kouga began backing away.

Eyes still trained on Kagome, his foot connected with something hard. There lay Kagura's fragment of the Shikon no Tama along with the two tiny slivers that had once been in his legs. He hadn't realized until that moment that he had lost them, but he supposed it must have happened in the heat of battle. He looked up at Kagome, whose resolve was fast abandoning her, and he knew he couldn't put her through another ordeal.

"Keep them, they're better off with you. Anyway, I don't really need them anymore."

And with one last look at his angel, he turned, dashing into the forest as he had done so often in his childhood, running on the feet nature had blessed him with, Kagura's last request haunting him as he hotfooted away from the ruined village.

- - - -

InuYasha came out of his sopor with much difficulty, and though he still hurt like hell, he knew in the back of his mind that he wasn't in anymore danger. His hand closed around the reassuring weight of the sword that lay sheathed across his bare and bandaged chest. He was somewhere warm and light and safe, and he slowly cracked open his eyelids, oscillating in the limbo between sleep and wakefulness.

There were voices nearby, and he struggled to make the words out as the image of Sango and Miroku sitting together beside Kaede's unconscious form near the fire came into focus.

"Sango...please," Miroku was saying to the taijiya, whose legs were folded under her as she stared into the flames, "I'm sorry. You should know how sorry I am for--for my lack of control."

Sango turned her chin up to look at him, and for once it wasn't to get a better aim at his face, "Miroku, do you think I ever expected control from you?"

Miroku did not reply, but merely stared back at her warily, chewing his lip. He looked truly haggard, and InuYasha supposed it must have been the effort involved in maintaining the protective barrier around the hut that had exhausted him so. The hanyou also noted that it was the first time he'd ever heard the demon-slayer call the monk by his given name.

Sango sighed, and a single tear slid down her face, splashing onto the wooden floorboards of Kaede's hut. Miroku reached out for her with his less-cursed hand, pushing her hair back behind her ear and wiping the tear away tenderly.

"Have I not proven myself worthy of you?" He asked quietly, his hand still cradling her moist cheek. "I have provided for you, prayed for you, protected you. How much more will it take for you to realize that I love you?"

Sango was staring at him with wide eyes. Ever so slowly she leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. Then the tears started flowing, and she buried her face in the satin robes of his shoulder and cried, hanging onto his neck as he held her to him in a tight embrace. Perhaps it was a trick of the firelight, but InuYasha imagined he saw a tears shimmering beneath Miroku's eyes as well.

Still sobbing and gasping, Sango managed to pull herself together enough to speak, "I know, and I love you too. But--my father would never have accepted this. I'm going to have a child and I'm not even married and--and we can't be married and hunting down Naraku at the same time."

She went back to weeping into his shoulder, and he stroked her hair in a soothing manner, and after a while he said, "Who says we can't be married yet? I'll do what I can to make things work, Sango. I will not abandon you or my child."

At those words Sango cried harder, though whether it was with happiness or grief InuYasha could not tell, but by now the Houshi's robes were almost as soaked as InuYasha's hakama was (he'd spotted his haori and undershirt getting toasty over by the fire).

"Do...do you want it to be a boy or a girl?" Sango asked his shoulder.

He sighed, his face buried in her neck, "It is ultimately Kami's choice but--a girl would be nice, if she grew up to be like her mother."

She gave a laugh that turned out to be more of a snort, and smiled up at him. She started when she felt Shippou tug at the hem of her shirt.

He was blinking up at her hopefully, "Sango, can I, um, be the big brother?"

She eyed the kit fondly, then looked back up at Miroku, "I think that would be fine."

After gazing into the monk's eyes for a minute Sango seemed to come to herself, and she looked around at the sleeping Kaede and the wounded InuYasha.

"Come on, you two," She said to Shippou and Miroku, taking the latter by the hand and getting to her feet. Shippou hopped after the couple as they swept past the bamboo door flap, InuYasha following their progress, feeling oddly equivocal about their patching up.

InuYasha nearly jumped out of his torn up skin when he heard a great sniff to his side, and he jerked his head around to see Kagome sitting there, tears falling freely as she stared after Miroku and Sango.

"Why the hell are you crying?" InuYasha said hoarsely. All he knew was that it was still the night of the new moon; he had no idea how long he'd been resting. At least he could look at Kagome safely again. Her dress was significantly drier than it had been.

She flashed him a watery smile, "I'm just so glad...they made up."

"Keh. It's about fucking time," _I can't believe everything worked out for that damned lecher._

It was then that InuYasha recalled the events that had transpired earlier that night, "Damn that bastard Kouga! I was going to kill Kagura!" It made him angry that he hadn't been able to properly exact revenge on the wind sorceress for hurting Kikyou and Kaede, not to mention everything else she'd done. Not only that, but he was extremely averse to admitting that the stinking wolf had saved them all.

"Baka, you couldn't have killed Kagura. You were nearly killed yourself," Kagome said, tears running afresh, and InuYasha had the distinct feeling that these weren't tears of relief. She moved closer to him, seeming to become even further distressed as she looked over the wounds she had bandaged herself.

She reached out for his chest, taking up the Tessaiga and placing it on the floor so she could better examine him. As she did this the vision of Kagome holding his fang against Kouga popped into his head.

His voice was peppered with ill-disguised awe, "Kagome...you sent Kouga away."

She hastily averted her eyes, blinking at the crackling fire tearfully, "I-I'd never let Kouga kill you. I feel bad about what I said to him though."

"You 'feel bad?'" InuYasha echoed incredulously. "That wolf was the one who chose to keep living in a fantasy; it ain't your fault he--"

InuYasha completely forgot about his diatribe when he noticed she was touching something at her neck, and he registered the pure pink glow of the nearly whole Shikon no Tama. Seeing what he was staring at, she removed her necklace and held the jewel out to him on the flat of her palm.

"Kagura had Naraku's shard, and Kouga left his shards behind."

InuYasha nodded at the girl who was kneeling so close to his supine form, his memory flooding back. Miroku and Sango hadn't been the only ones who needed to talk things out. Before Shippou had miraculously come across the well to warn them about Kagura, InuYasha had been about to go to Kagome's dance--about to ask her why she pushed away from their kiss. And now they were out of danger, alone, in possession of the largest fragment of the Jewel of Four Souls.

The soul of the greatest miko of all time trapped in an amaranthine battle with the demons she spent her mortal life fighting. The efflux of energy reached out to the hanyou alluringly, and he ran one of his human fingers over its iridescent surface. Kagome pushed it closer to him, offering it, and he picked it up between his thumb and forefinger.

Half a century ago this jewel was the pathway to power, the one thing that he'd always believed would make him happy. That was, until he and Kikyou met. At the realization that there were things he wanted even more than power, the Shikon no Tama assumed a very different connotation in his eyes, and he decided for himself that he would rather be loved by one woman than be accepted by the world of youkai. Now, even if the times and the woman had changed, his decision was just the same as the one he'd made all those years ago. Kikyou's words from earlier that day played through his mind as he rotated the jewel above his face, the niche where the last shards should have been gaping down at him as he tried to think of the right way to pose his question to Kagome.

__

'You wish to know whether I think Kagome will only love you as a human.'

"We still need the shards Takakuri took from me, as well as Miroku and Kohaku's shards," She said, sounding anxious, and InuYasha didn't really want to think about why.

"And then the jewel will be complete," InuYasha finished.

The miko averted her gaze once more, staring down at her lap desolately.

He took a deep breath, finding out a bit too late that that particular enterprise made his chest sear white hot, and he rubbed his wound as he spoke, "I know what I'm going to wish for."

Kagome's body tautened in trepidation, "Please don't say you want to become a full demon."

"I wasn't gonna say that!" He contravened, "I mean...I was _going_ to say--uh..."

__

How do I tell her--ask her? What if she says yes? But...what if she says no...?

"You...you don't want to become a full demon anymore?"

He swallowed, "I mean...we know the only way to get rid of the Shikon no Tama is to make a pure wish, right? So...uh..."

She was looking at him confusedly, and InuYasha began to shift uncomfortably where he lay, growing nervous. He was suddenly unsure if he could really ask her what he wanted to know. He felt his resolve waver. "Maybe...maybe we've been going about trying to destroy Naraku the wrong way. Even without the jewel he's pretty powerful, but now we've cloistered a fragment of that power beyond his grasp. So what if we use the Shikon no Tama to wish--to wish _Naraku_ human?"

She watched her intently as she sat in pensive silence, then listened as she spoke, "I don't know if that would work; it's pretty far-out. But Naraku _is_ a hanyou...he'd probably become Onigumo again."

InuYasha sighed, once again recalling his conversation with Kikyou, _'She is a miko however, and such a pure maiden and one such as you, tainted with the blood of a youkai, can never be together.'_

Silence fell, allowing him to ponder the meaning behind her words. He extended the jewel toward her, his eyes remaining fixedly on the ceiling as he signaled for her to take it. She obliged him, taking his hand in hers, but she didn't let go. He looked up at her cautiously, only to see that her eyes were shining with tears as she they held the jewel between their palms.

"I was so afraid that you would die, InuYasha," She said, squeezing his hand. "I don't know if--" She cut herself off with a choked sob.

"What are you talking about?" InuYasha said softly. "It would take more than Kagura or that wolf to kill me."

"Don't tell me that, InuYasha. You're human tonight." She sniffled, "This has happened before. Don't tell me you don't remember."

__

Of course I remember. It could've happened yesterday, the first time you saw me in my human form. You told me you wished that I could trust you, were the thoughts that went through his mind as he blinked up at her, but he said nothing.

She was weeping freely now, rivers of tears flowing down her face, making InuYasha uncomfortable. Not as uncomfortable as he would become however, when she bent closer to him, positioning herself on top of him with her arms on either side of his torso, one leg between his. He was helpless to stop her in his weakened state, his wide eyes staying on her tear-streaked face that gradually came to rest itself on his shoulder.

"Do you remember what you told me? That I smelled nice," Her lips moved against his ear as she whispered, and he didn't dare to move a muscle. Her weight was sufficiently poised to elicit warm, tingling sensations within him, but suspended far enough above him so as not to exacerbate his injuries. "I never told you--I like your scent too."

He tried to quell the feelings within him as she sighed into his ear, clamping his eyes shut and chanting a mantra inside his head that it wasn't his place, that it was wrong, but to no avail.

His lungs burned from lack of air that he seemed to have forgotten the importance of as she spoke again, "It makes me feel safe...and at home, your scent. So...now you know."

He didn't quite understand what she meant, but he got no more time to think of that when he felt the soft pressure of her lips on his cheek. His brain slowed down as the palpitations in his chest picked up, his pain and discomfort obsolescing as her kisses crawled up his face, one after another, as if she were trying to convey to him a message coded in shockingly gentle, if not a bit clumsy, touches.

__

Is she only kissing me because of the new moon? He asked himself in his final moments of sanity, before one of her kisses reached his mouth.

Abandoning all pretense, his arms came willingly around her as he returned the pressure of her lips. It was the polar opposite of their first kiss; he was in a much less muddled state of mind, he was in his human form, and she wasn't pushing him away. But unlike Kikyou's kiss, the sensation of Kagome against him and with her lips against his _felt_ right, no matter how many times he'd told himself it wasn't.

He buried his hand in the silk of her dress, unafraid of hurting her with his claws on the moonless night as he dauntlessly meted out feather-light nips to her mouth, using his teeth as tools of pleasure instead of another one of his demon defenses. His olfactory senses may not have been as keen as usual, but her scent still routed out moans from deep within him. In fact, his dull human senses seemed to be feeling a lot more than he could ever remember feeling...

He heard Kagome gasp, and fear spiked his heart as his clouded mind searched frantically for what had caused the interruption, but it wasn't illusive. The answer hit him in the form of an incalescent swell bang below his waist, right where Kagome's leg lay, and he was sure she must've felt his face heat up just before he jerked it away from hers.

__

She's going to run away from me. She'll scream and then run away.

He waited, and her soft exhale warmed his face for what seemed like an eternity, when she surprised him. Bringing her hand to his chin, she tilted it so that his nose grazed hers. She may have forced him to face her, but he still couldn't meet her eyes, choosing instead to look off at Kaede's dozing form on the other side of the hearth.

"InuYasha...you don't have to be ashamed," She said quietly, the merest trace of a smile in her voice.

As if by magnetic pull, his eyes flew back to hers, his heart beating so fast he had no doubts that it would cease to beat altogether. A feeling that he had long ago forgotten was bubbling up inside of him, so strong that it nearly blinded him, setting fire to his blood as he brought his lips to hers, breathing her in as his hands tangled themselves in her piceous hair.

All traces of her usual timidity were gone, replaced by a side of Kagome he'd only dreamed of experiencing. A devastating heat engulfed him in a cage of limbs and lips, refusing to let him escape. Vaguely he wondered about this; he wouldn't have left even if he could. Kagome was closer to him than she'd ever been, and he returned each of her kisses with his own, letting her taste his hunger, his desire that had been kept in check for so long.

Dazedly, he registered pricks of pain igniting in his chest, the feel of his own blood soaking through his clothes that was undetectable with his human nose, and he tried to gain Kagome's attention by speaking against her mouth, "Kagome...my wounds...y-your dress..."

She sat up slightly, her eyes half-open as she surveyed his bandages, the blood having leaked through them and soaked the front of her dress, "Oh, here--I'll redo the dressings."

With great reluctance he let her retreat from the security of his arms to fetch the bandages from Kaede's medicine pile and redress his wounds.

He watched her as she came back to his side, faithfully prepping his injuries to be swathed again. Even after their shared moment of passion there dwelled within him a small fear that she would run away, bolt past the bamboo flap as soon as she had assured herself that he would live. That part of him grew greater alongside an increased feeling of vulnerability as she continued to treat him, until he was once more avoiding her gaze.

She tied off the final bandage, and he felt Kagome's hand lightly caress the hair that fell about his face. Before he could do anything but stare with wide eyes she had laid down beside him, her body curling up against his, her head in the crook of his shoulder. In the wake of such a simple yet meaningful action his misgivings were extinguished beneath the wonderful feel of Kagome by his side as they drifted off into peaceful slumber, still wrapped in each other's arms even when the fire died out hours later.


	9. Tea With Toutousai

Tea With Toutousai

Silence pervaded the village at dawn, the first delicate rays of warmth disturbing the diaphanous blanket of darkness that cloaked the abandoned wreckage. The usual sonance of early birds, hens feeding, and children playing as their elders started on their share of work was absent. The villagers had resorted to braving the wilds, only to return when they could be certain the Wind Witch was long gone. After the previous night there was only one hut left standing.

Beneath the clapboard roof the old miko slept soundly beside the cold hearth, on the opposite side of which the two humans were snoring lightly. Kagome, lying on her side, sighed contentedly in her sleep before burying her nose deeper into InuYasha's neck as his arms tightened around her waist.

As slowly and steadily as a spring flower blooms, chinks of sunlight spilled through the many tiny holes in the clay of the ceiling of Kaede's hut, gathering intensity as they caressed InuYasha's tanned skin. The bamboo door flap whipped about in the unnatural wind within the wooden walls as InuYasha's hair that had been as dark as night changed to match the day outside. Puppy ears flicking, the hanyou's clawed hands drew Kagome closer to him as he shifted to lie supine, bringing the girl onto his chest, her face still tucked securely into the hollow between his shoulder and neck.

Hours passed before the couple was disenchanted from the slumber that was so new yet so familiar to the two of them, Kagome stifling an immediate yawn as she arrived in the realm of awareness. The disorientation the miko might have experienced in earnest had she been in the same situation a few years prior now guttered like a glowing wick under liquid wax; waking up in a different setting everyday for two years straight had attenuated the confusion of awakening beneath a forest canopy instead of her bedroom ceiling.

She smiled vaguely, never having woken up with InuYasha's scent so close that it clung to her like clothing. She blinked a few times to clear her bleary vision, but where she should have seen only the ligneous side of the hut, a large purple something hovered before her. It took all of two seconds for her to figure out what the large purple thing was.

"Miroku!" Kagome screeched, trying to scurry away, but InuYasha, having been jolted awake by her scream, tightened his hold on her, ears swiveling as they searched for any signs of danger.

It was only a matter of a brief time until InuYasha realized that it was just the Houshi, and the hanyou blinked up at him with slightly dazed golden eyes, though his grip on Kagome didn't slack.

"How long have you been standing there?" InuYasha asked incredulously.

The monk wore a knowing smile, "Long enough."

It was as if Kagome and InuYasha had suddenly been doused in water; they took one look at each other before scrambling to separate themselves, InuYasha hissing in pain as he moved into a sitting position.

"Oh, are you okay?" Kagome asked, reaching for his bandaged chest.

"This is nothing, wench," InuYasha scoffed, eyes never leaving the monk, who was watching them with a serene expression. "This ain't what it looks like."

He switched his shakuju to his other hand, "Really? Because it looks to me--"

"I know how it looks, bouzu!"

The Houshi's countenance turned stormy with alarming abruptness, "You are even wilier than I thought InuYasha. You would bed Kagome only hours after you ran off after Kikyou?"

The silence that followed his so bluntly put remark seemed to hold more promise of belligerency than ever it had. InuYasha couldn't make himself face the miko when he felt her eyes on him, "_What_?"

He flinched, "Kagome, let me explain..."

But she didn't, choosing instead to head for the door flap, and he watched as she hurriedly limped from sight, just as he had been afraid she would do the night before.

The hanyou spoke virulently to the monk, "Why the _hell_ did you do that?"

InuYasha barely had time to register his own surprise at the anger on his friend's face before the monk bellowed, "Kagome deserves to know the truth if she's going to bear your pup!"

Nearly choking on his words, InuYasha exclaimed, "I told you nothing happened! You should know; you were standing there watching us for Kami knows how long, sukebe!"

"Hey, I'm no sukebe!" The monk yelled indignantly, and the hanyou's stomach froze over as his purple-clad friend about-faced to reveal a fluffy brown kitsune tail poking out of the seat of his robes. The inuhanyou gave a punctilious sniff, and sure enough the scent was not that of Miroku's.

"Consider yourself maimed, hairball." The hanyou then winced, clutching his chest as he muttered threateningly, "As soon as I can stand up..."

Shippou grimaced, and a telltale _poof_ followed by the frightened squeak of the fox kit preceded InuYasha's guttural growl as he got to his feet with difficulty.

Eschewing the hanyou's ire, Shippou cast about for a means of distraction. His jaw went slack when he spied the magenta fragment of the Shikon no Tama lying harmlessly in the space InuYasha and Kagome had occupied not moments ago, and all thoughts irrelevant to the jewel quickly fled the kit's head.

"InuYasha, that's the almost whole jewel!" Shippou exclaimed, darting between the hanyou's legs sprier than he could be caught and gathering the smooth shard in his little clawed hands. "We've got Naraku's shard."

"Gimme that!" InuYasha groused, yanking the jewel from Shippou's grasp. "This belongs with Kago--Oi!"

Something soft floated down to cover InuYasha's head, and he wrestled it off of him to see his haori in his hands.

"Ye'll be needing your clothes, InuYasha," Kaede said to him without looking up from the fire, and InuYasha blushed as he donned his undershirt. He hadn't known she'd been watching too.

"Feh," He grumbled as he tucked the ends of his haori into his hakama before flying out the door, seeming to have forgotten his injuries.

Kaede and Shippou looked from the door to each other and smiled.

"Ye played a dirty trick, taking the shape of Houshi-dono, young Shippou," The old miko scolded, though her eyes sparkled. "Was the subterfuge really necessary to achieve your ends?"

Shippou shrugged, "InuYasha should've known it wasn't Miroku; he's off in the woods with Sango making more pups."

Kaede shook her head and sighed, but the kit didn't stop there as she added more kindling to the fire.

"Kaede, do you know when Kagome's pup will be born?"

The old woman sighed once again, figuring that efforts to gainsay the kit's notion would prove, as per usual, fruitless, "Not for a long time yet, Shippou. A _very_ long time."

- - - -

Slipping into her bedroom, Kagome doffed her wet towel, sighing as it landed on the floor beside her once white gown, now covered in filth and blood stains. Quickly pulling on fresh underclothes, she picked out a gossamer yellow skirt with a plain white tee and took the dirtied dress to the bathroom to rinse it under cold water.

Perched on the edge of the tub, Kagome gasped when she felt her eyes sting. The wetness had leaked into the corners of her eyes unwittingly as she thought about InuYasha--and Kikyou.

With the realization came the crumbling of her last defenses against the worries that plagued her heart, and her body shook as the red washed down the drain, leaving a brown shadow on the fabric it had left.

Having hung the dress to dry, she wiped at her eyes as she went back to her bedroom, her feet dragging behind her as she shut the door.

"Kagome?"

The girl looked up to see InuYasha, one foot still on the windowsill as he gaped at her, "You..."

Hastily pushing himself into her room as Kagome felt the hot tears welling up again, her approached her with an appeasing gesture, "It's not what you think, Kagome. Kikyou--"

"What is wrong with you? You b-baka!" She shouted, unable to control the tremor in her voice as he stepped back a bit.

"You don't understand--"

"Oh, really? What I understand is that _you don't. _That woman is bent on killing you, InuYasha!"

He was rendered speechless as she closed the gap between them, clutching fistfuls of his haori with a childlike desperation as she sobbed into his shoulder, "Wha...?"

"How dare you scare me like that? You could've died--you could've died and I wouldn't have known."

InuYasha could barely believe what he was hearing as Kagome continued to bawl, but soon enough he pulled himself together and steadied Kagome by laying hands on her shoulders so that he was looking down into her tearstained face.

"I-I didn't know. I didn't know I scared you. I'm sorry--for a lot of things. Please don't cry."

Kagome's lips quivered as she nodded to the floor, "I know. It's okay."

He winced at her words, and she got the impression that he felt even more guilty now that she'd forgiven him, "Aren't you going to... 'Osuwari' me or something?"

Kagome blinked at him, "Do you want me to?"

"Feh, of course not," InuYasha growled, shaking his head. "Uh...you forgot this."

He extended his hand to her, offering the Shikon no Tama no Kakera resting in his palm, and Kagome breathed an 'Oh.'

She slipped the necklace it was strung upon over her head, fingering the jewel with a thoughtful frown, "Kikyou...she knew Kagura had taken Naraku's shard, didn't she?"

"Uh...yeah. She did."

Kagome's frown deepened, "She'll probably come after us when she finds out we have the shard."

His amber eyes evinced fear, and she imagined he was remembering when Kikyou had stolen their shard from her the first time, long ago. The fear was soon masked by determination however, and his hands balled into fists, "I won't let her. I'll protect you."

"You'll protect me from the woman you vowed to protect?" Kagome laughed weakly. "Don't you think making a promise that you can't keep is just as bad as breaking one?"

He opened and closed his mouth several times, seemingly incapable of answering her, and she averted her eyes lest they betray her. She suddenly found herself staring at InuYasha's white suit that lay folded upon her sheets.

He rubbed his neck in a sheepish manner, "I guess we missed that dance thing, huh?"

Kagome smiled. "It's not your fault. It's definitely over by now though," She laughed, looking at the clock over on her nightstand. As soon as she registered the time however, she gasped. "Half past noon? Kami!"

"What's so special about half past noon?" InuYasha queried.

The words of the ancient swordsman whistled past his gap-toothed jaw before her mind's eye, _'Come to my shop tomorrow around noon and we'll talk over tea.'_

"Nothing, I just have to be somewhere important!" She squeaked evasively, flinging open her bedroom door. "You should go back across the well and help Miroku rebuild the village."

And with that parting suggestion, she left, completely missing InuYasha's pouting expression and rolling of the eyes.

Kagome tore downstairs, not even stopping to pet Buyo as he chowed down on cat food as she threw open the front door, slamming it closed as she chanted the street names that led to the sword shop under her breath.

"Higurashi?"

Kagome yelped in surprise, "Houjou?"

Broom in hand, he jogged to her side with a wide smile, "Your mother said you might be here. I wasn't sure if--"

"Houjou, your face!" Kagome interjected, appalled as she stared at his bruised eye.

He made an irenic gesture, "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt too much. Burimoudou found me at the dance last night. I guess he wanted to finish what he started in gym class.

"I'm so sorry. It's all my fault," Kagome said regretfully, uncertain if the boy's fate would have been much different had InuYasha been at the dance.

"Don't say that, Kagome. It isn't." His face was suddenly lit with cautious curiosity. "I thought you were going to be at the dance with your boyfriend though?"

Kagome mentally damned her blush to hell as she tried to keep herself from fidgeting, but to no avail, "S-Something came up. Why are you here?"

"Oh," he lifted the broom, "I offered to help take care of the shrine for free. I was very sorry to hear about your grandfather."

Kagome's expression turned pained, and she hoped that Houjou would chalk it up to the reminder of her grandfather's hospitalization and not the prospect of the brown-haired youth skulking about the shrine everyday, "That's very sweet of you. Mom's been having a pretty hard time of it because of the heart attack."

Houjou nodded, then perked up as if remembering something, "I almost forgot. I have something for you, Higurashi."

"I kind of have to be go--okay," Kagome trailed off as Houjou fished a small, wrapped package from within his pocket. She shifted her weight anxiously.

"I never got to give you your White Day present because--you know--you hurt your ankle. How is it by the way?"

"Well, I can walk," She smiled insincerely as she took the offered gift, tugging open the soft paper to see a miniature jewelry box. "Wow...Houjou,"

Inside was a necklace hung with an onyx pendant, flat and round like a coin, the golden kanji for 'beauty' inscribed upon it.

"It's--er--beautiful," Kagome said with a delighted giggle, pulling it over her head so that the pendant settled just below the Shikon no Tama no Kakera.

She stopped short of thanking the boy when she saw his expression, his eyes wide and confused and fixed on a point just above her shoulder. Kagome stiffened when she felt a tug on her new necklace, followed by a terse _snap_.

Every part of her tried and failed to offer up a suitable excuse for the noise she'd just heard. She didn't want to believe it, yet when she turned around her mouth dropped open; towering behind her and wearing a lower fit to kill, the gray and gold pendant hung off his claws as he bared a fang in silent rancor.

"InuYasha...you baka!" she screeched, shoving him in the chest but scarcely surmounting to move him, she ran around him instead, storming past the door and into the house.

"Wait, Higurashi! I can get it repaired--" He was cut off by the sharp sound of the front door slamming combined with the choking glare that the hanyou pinned him with.

InuYasha emitted a low growl of warning as the boy stared at him in something akin to wonder.

Houjou raised a hand timorously, "Hi."

He froze mid-wave as a twitch of the hanyou's dog ears caught his attention a split second before InuYasha shot him a final ominous look before running through the front door after Kagome.

He caught her at the top of the stairs, grasping her firmly by the shoulders as she tried to escape him.

"Get away from me, baka!" Her voice cracked as she shouted at him, pushing at his chest. Her heart was torn at the one she usually went to for comfort causing her such chagrin. "Why do you always have to get jealous of every little thing?"

InuYasha pulled her toward him, trapping her hands between their torsos, and as she glared up into his angry golden eyes she felt his chest rumbling beneath her fingers in a primal growl that frightened her yet comforted her. She had to avert her eyes as a rosy blush stained her cheeks when she suddenly realized that she wanted him to kiss her.

__

Stupid Kagome! If you kiss him now that'll be like rewarding bad behavior, Kagome nearly rolled her eyes at her thoughts. The idea of yelling at him was suddenly a lot less appealing than it had been only a second ago.

"I am not jealous," He spoke in a deadly quiet tone, still not releasing her. She could feel the scabs from his wounds beneath his clothing and bandages.

"Then explain why you broke my necklace," Kagome demanded. "Houjou is my _friend_."

"Friend my ass! Just like Kouga thinks you're_ his friend_." InuYasha riposted trenchantly.

"So what your saying is: you're allowed to promise yourself to two women, but I'm not allowed to wear a simple necklace from a male friend?"

InuYasha's cheeks pinked, and he loosened his hold on her somewhat as he feigned stubbornness, "I..."

"You're being unreasonable, InuYasha. You shouldn't be jealous of my friends."

"I ain't jealous!"

"Then why did you break my necklace?"

"Because," He snarled, his voice exasperated, "It was like--like he was marking you as his own or something."

Kagome couldn't possibly have hid the indignation on her face, and she knew InuYasha saw it as well, "Oh, and is that for _you_ to do? Mark me as your _property_?"

Kagome pushed away from him, her fury making her immune to the undisguised pain in InuYasha's eyes. Yanking her broken necklace out of his now limp hand, she ran down the stairs and out the front door. She stood there in front of the house for nearly a minute until she heard her bedroom window slide open and then gently fall closed. InuYasha had gone back through the well.

__

Dammit, A tear slipped from the corner of her eye as guilt and shame overwhelmed her. _I didn't mean to hurt him._

Her chest ached and burned as if she'd been stabbed, and her vision blurred as she wobbled down the shrine steps and walked as fast as she could down the sidewalk, her yellow skirt swirling about her as she plied the length of each street until she had passed the graveyard. She rubbed her puffy eyes as she jogged up to the sword shop, a healthy sheen of perspiration coating her face.

"S. O. F. A.?" She read the sign above the entrance of the shop, 'Swords of Forgotten Ages', "I remember one time Mama came in here thinking it was a place to buy furniture. False advertising if you ask me."

Kagome pulled open to the door to the shop, nearly gagging as the pungent aromas of no less than thirty sticks of incense assailed her, "Kami."

She plugged her nose as she entered the dim shop, the only lights coming from the oil candles and the pots of glowing incense along with a few windows. The chipped walls were a deep tomato red, and the room was cluttered with more glass-encased swords than actual people. They lay in bundles upon the shelves, strewn about the counters and displayed on pillows on window ledges. A dart board on the far side of the room was stuck with knives, and she thought she saw a sword resting on the wings of the broken ceiling fan above her. Even the umbrella stand by the door was filled with rusty blades.

"So you decided to show up, did you?" A voice hailed her, and the withered form of Toutousai materialized on the threshold of an adjoining room, his body veiled by a thick cloud of smoke as he drew on the pipe between his parched lips.

"I'm sorry I was late. It couldn't be helped." She said truthfully, fiddling with the jewel about her neck.

The old geezer's gaze was drawn to her hand, and his eyes grew, if possible, wider than they already were, "Oh my. So that's why you were late, eh?"

"You know what happened?"

Toutousai sighed, "Come, Kagome. We have much to discuss. I just hope I'm not too late."

Kagome heard his muttered plaint as he retreated back into the smoke-filled room, panic grazing her as she gulped. Coughing as she braved the abutting room, she closed the door behind her and toddled toward the low, round table, before which the old man sat pouring himself a cup of tea. Kagome took the spot on the floor opposite him, pulling the tea kettle toward her and helping herself as she tried to keep her eyes from watering.

"It stinks in here," She complained. "Do you have to have the windows closed with all the candles and incense and...is that a _cigar_?"

Toutousai lifted his chin, a large brown stick smoldering in his mouth, "Banana flavored."

"Ugh," Kagome stood up, moving to the window and forcing it open. "There. Now we can talk."

Taking her seat once more, she slurped her tea as the air grew fresher, sounds of traffic floating in through the window, "Toutousai...tell me how InuYasha died."

He rummaged around for something beside him, then pulled up a box of tissues and set it on the table before her, "You'll be needing these."

She nodded in understanding, "Thanks."

After staring at her for a long minute the sword smith spoke, "Now that you have acquired the fragment the Wind Demoness stole from her former master, I must inform you that the time to defeat Naraku draws near. The third year after you first fell through the well is the day you and your friends will defeat him. It is also the day that InuYasha will meet his death."

Kagome nearly started crying at the mention of InuYasha dying. She took a deep breath, "Can you tell me how it happened?"

He gave a nod, taking a swig of his tea before replacing the void in his mouth with the cigar once more, "All that you will hear now is what Myouga told me afterward. He was with InuYasha when he went with you and your friends to attack Naraku at his hidden stronghold. Sesshoumaru and the miko named Kikyou will be with you as well, though their presence is not as vital to the story as yours is, Kagome."

"Mine?" Kagome whispered.

"Naraku was weaker without the shard, which InuYasha was in possession of along with the rest of the shards--the completed Shikon no Tama. Naraku was not expecting the attack, and you came upon him while he was accommodating his heart. It was necessary to him to aid in his recovery, and with his heart he was susceptible to death."

"InuYasha killed Naraku?"

"Yes. With the completed Shikon no Tama, InuYasha made a wish: that Naraku be made human."

Kagome gasped, "You mean...that idea actually worked?"

Toutousai nodded gravely, "Indeed. A little too well."

"Wh-What do you mean?"

Smoke slithered out of his mouth as he spoke, "InuYasha was direly injured in the battle, and it is the wounds inflicted upon him by Naraku that will cause his death shortly after the demise of the human Onigumo. His soul will then be taken captive by Kikyou, who intends to take it with her to the world of the dead."

"No," Kagome breathed, tearing up. "Why didn't Sesshoumaru use Tenseiga? You said he came along. Surely he wouldn't have let her...?"

"Sesshoumaru was unable to wield Tenseiga."

Kagome stopped in the middle of dabbing her eye with a tissue, "What? Why? Did Sesshoumaru die during the battle too? Is that why his grave is there?"

Toutousai's mouth formed a rigid line, his cigar snapping in half and falling to the table, though he didn't seem to notice, "No. Sesshoumaru died forty-nine years after that day, because that is what humans do. They die."

The tissue fell from Kagome's hand, "_Human?_"

"Yes. That is also why InuYasha died. The wish he made on the Shikon no Tama came with some unexpected repercussions: along with Naraku, every other youkai or part-youkai was turned human. This is why InuYasha's injuries were the death of him; no mere human could survive with wounds of such magnitude."

Kagome stared, her mouth hanging open, _Every youkai turned human? It would explain the size of Sesshoumaru's grave, and why I haven't seen a single youkai in modern--wait a minute..._

"Hold the phone, Toutousai," Kagome pointed her finger at him. "Do you think I'm dumb or something? You're a youkai and you're sitting right in front of me and smoking your nasty cigars five-hundred years later!"

"I am not a youkai. I was turned human just like everybody else," The old man said indifferently, and Kagome gaped as he pulled back his hoary hair to reveal ears that lacked the characteristic points of a mononoke.

Kagome shook her head, "Then--how the heck are you alive?"

"That is why I visit the grave of Sesshoumaru so often. The sword of healing that was interred with him, that I forged for him many years ago from the fang of his father, has sustained my life these five-hundred years. There are no others alive from that time besides the hermits of the mountains with their mystical knowledge of long life."

Kagome expelled a shaky breath, gripping the table until her knuckles turned white, "You--You're telling the truth?"

"I understand that this is difficult, Kagome. You are taking this quite we--"

"I can't believe this!" Kagome cried, tears running down her face as she began to weep. "Oh my God!"

Toutousai looked at her concernedly as she buried her face in her hands upon the table, her body wracking with sobs and incomprehensible words. The sobs did not subside for at least another ten minutes, at which point he patted her gently on the shoulder as she looked up at him through watery brown orbs.

"There, there, young missy. Dry your tears. The future can be changed."

Kagome gulped, "C-Can it?"

"So I hope. I have spent the last five-hundred years researching the events of that terrible day that has yet to come on the other side of your magic well, which, by the way, Myouga told me about."

"I guess that means Myouga's dead too," Kagome said quietly, picturing a pointy-nosed human Myouga being cremated, his equally funny-looking wife wailing over his body. _All of them died...all the youkai, good and bad._

"I offered to share Tenseiga's power with Myouga, but he did not desire life as a human, and chose death instead. He said he trusted me to tell you these things so that he could live as a flea-youkai again."

A frown creased Kagome's brow as she mulled over his words, "You aren't actually suggesting I could change the future, are you?"

"I would never have guessed a girl who'd fallen through a well and landed in the feudal era to battle monsters could be so skeptical," He grumbled, reaching for another cigar.

Kagome sighed, "I don't even know why the jewel did what it did! How can I prevent all youkai from turning human by the jewel if I don't know how it happened in the first place?"

"I haven't been alive all this time just playing with swords, miko," Toutousai said, lighting the cigar. Kagome coughed and fanned at the smoke with her hand. "I have reliable theories as to why this may have happened, ones that have much, if not everything, to do with you."

Kagome awaited his explanations as he took a drag of the blueberry flavored cigar.

"I won't pretend to be naive; I know what is it that you and InuYasha have with each other now, and what you will have with each other later. You are in love with him, and the hanyou is in love with you."

She blushed furiously at his forthrightness, only half-feigning irritation at the smoke as she covered her face with both hands.

He continued, "The Shikon no Tama, infested with both evil and good as it is, will use love against him when he makes his wish. Though he may have wished Naraku human, his secret desire to become human _himself_ is so all-consuming within him that it bleeds over into that simple wish, and the Jewel of Four Souls will augment that desire to worldwide proportions."

"But why would InuYasha want to become human?"

"It is simple: InuYasha is of the belief that you, Kagome, will only love him as a human."

Kagome stared at him, disgruntled, "_What? _I've never said anything that would make him believe that! He knows I accept him as he is--as a hanyou! And I do! I would _never_ ask him to become human if he didn't want to! I'm not Kikyou!"

Toutousai nodded, eying her intently as she seethed, "It's true. You accept him like no one else has, because that is who you are, and it is this that endears InuYasha to you so. But you must keep in mind that actions sometimes speak louder than words."

Kagome narrowed her eyes at him, her harsh breathing slowing as she tried to make sense of what he was saying, and then it came to her, with horrible verity, the memory of the previous night.

__

I kissed him...when he was human. Kami, her eyes widened as a fear like she'd never known before, a fear she had never wanted to know, clenched her heart, constricting her breathing, _When I yelled at him this morning. No...no, no, _no_! I didn't mean it! And that night in my room--his ears--I pushed him away because I was nervous! And when I broke off our first kiss... No, please don't let him think--_

"Now you see," Toutousai's voice intruded, hushed and grim. "InuYasha may trust you, but he harbors insecurities that cannot be melted by your warm presence alone."

Kagome felt like throwing up, _And when he asked me about turning Naraku human--surely he couldn't have been trying to ask if I wanted him to turn human? Oh God..._

"Tell me what I have to do, Toutousai," Kagome rasped, fierceness in her gaze as she clutched her stomach. The tea on the table before her was cold by now.

He seemed satisfied with her determination, "If you want to save him, you must try your hardest to convince him that you love him as he is. If you succeed in this, the Shikon no Tama will not be able to use InuYasha's secret desire to be human against him, and all of youkai kind will be saved from his fate."

Kagome released the breath she'd been unconsciously holding, "I don't suppose I can just go up to him and say, 'Hey, I love you as you are,' huh?"

"No, I don't believe that would work," He said. "You must be sure you are up to the challenge, Kagome. InuYasha's life, as well as the lives of countless others, rest in the strength of your will to do this."

"Of course I'll do it. I can do it. I have to," Kagome said, more to herself than the old man across from her.

"Miko, it is unclear if changing InuYasha's wish will save his life...in the end," Toutousai said hesitantly.

Kagome met his gaze, her uncertainty disappearing, "I have to try."

He grinned around the cigar before snuffing it out on the ashtray beside him, "Good to know. I trust you to see this task through, so don't let me down."

"I won't," _I won't let you or InuYasha down. _"Is there anything else I should know?"

"Nope. Oh yes!" He yelled, causing Kagome to jump, "I forgot to tell you yesterday at the grave; you must not, under any circumstances, mention this to anyone from the other side of the well."

"That's fine. I haven't. But--uh...why is that?"

Toutousai barked out a laugh, "Obvious, isn't it? You can't just go around telling people about the future! Do _you_ go around telling people about your magic well?"

Kagome eyed him suspiciously, "Are you holding back on me?"

Toutousai averted his eyes, "I have the right to withhold information from you."

Kagome mentally counted to ten before speaking, "Can you tell me what happens to my other friends? Miroku? Sango? Sango's child? _Me_?"

"No, I can't! You know too much as it is!" The ancient human bellowed.

"So you are holding back on me!" Kagome gasped.

"It's for your own good. I can't damn well tell you everything about everyone in a future that has yet to take place on the other side of the well, so don't you dare ask me another question about your future. You'll just have to trust that I've given you all the information you'll need to save InuYasha's life."

They sat in tense silence for a minute, when Kagome was hit with an idea, "Can you tell me about Sesshoumaru? What's going on with him? Why is he slaughtering villages and setting youkai on them?"

Toutousai frowned. He seemed to be internally debating whether or not her question was reasonable, but in the end he sighed, "Sesshoumaru was planning to lure out the Taiyoukai of the South by attacking the humans who live in his lands."

Kagome raised an eyebrow, "That's dumb. He could just go and attack this guy, whoever he is, couldn't he?"

"Not with what Sesshoumaru has in mind. He is in love with Lord Masaki's mate, Soruto--what's so funny?"

Kagome had unleashed a massive snort as the mention of Sesshoumaru being in love, "I'm sorry--it's really not...that funny but...Sesshoumaru is killing people because he's _in love_?"

The old man lit another cigar, mint this time, "He's killing people so that Masaki, his rival, will challenge him, and not the other way around. If Sesshoumaru were to waltz into Masaki's lands and kill the guy, who knows if Soruto would have him? He hopes that if Masaki issues the challenge then it will be Masaki's fault that Sesshoumaru kills him."

"That's awful! He's killing countless people just so he can steal the woman he loves from a man by killing him," Kagome ground her teeth angrily. "This 'Masaki' doesn't have a son by the name of 'Takakuri' by any chance, does he?"

Toutousai puffed his cigar, "Yep. That's the one.'

Kagome's brow creased, _So as long as Masaki keeps sending his son to do his dirty work instead of going out there himself, Sesshoumaru will continue to slaughter innocents._

Glad to have something else to dwell on besides InuYasha's death, Kagome stood up, preparing to leave, "Uh--thanks...I guess."

He stood as well, escorting her to the door, "I trust you, Kagome. Trust yourself, and you will succeed."

He opened the door for her, leading her toward the exit to the shop when someone stepped in front of them, "Higurashi Kagome!"

Kagome blinked dazedly at her gym substitute, taken unawares, "Sensei? Hello..."

The elderly woman smiled at her, "I didn't know you knew old Toutousai. Nice to see you again. That was some fine shooting yesterday, if I do say so myself. Takes me back, that does."

"Kagome and I go way back, Tsukimi. I've seen Kagome's archery as well, though I'd expect no less from such a powerful miko as she," Toutousai said offhandedly. He shrugged at Kagome's horrified expression, "Tsukimi here is a miko as well. Not as nearly as powerful as you, mind."

"She's a...?" Kagome trailed off as Tsukimi wandered off to a corner display. "But--what about InuYasha's wish?"

"That was youkai, little missy. Mikos still had all their abnormal powers, though I've not seen one quite like you even in all my years."

Kagome smiled self-consciously, "Oh, well, I should be going."

The old man nodded as Kagome made to exit the shop, "You won't let us down."

Once out on the sidewalk, Kagome held onto the wall for support as another wave of tears spilled down her cheeks. Crying into her arm, Kagome slowly wobbled along the sidewalk in the general direction of the shrine.

"How can I do this?" Kagome complained aloud, "How on earth... InuYasha dies in a year. I-I can't--I won't--let him."

She began to walk faster, grimacing as she staunched the flow of tears, _Ever since I learned InuYasha would die I've been so afraid of the fact. That's why I was so afraid last night when Kagura attacked._

Kagome shivered as she remembered the feeling; as if her hanyou were suddenly out of her reach, which she was experiencing worse that ever at the moment. Those same feelings had given her the courage to stand up to Kouga, to overcome her qualms of nervousness and kiss InuYasha in a vain attempt to bring him closer. How she wished now that she could have saved that kiss for the morning.

The wind whipped her midnight hair behind her as she limped around bends and past fire hydrants, "I'll make him see that I love him the way he is. I have to; I can't live without him."

__

But how will I do that? Aren't I in this mess because of my shyness? How am I going to prove I love him if I can't get near him with a twenty foot pole without blushing?

She stopped, panting. She had reached the base of the shrine stairs. What she recognized as Houjou's car was still parked at the curb. Kagome dug in her pocket, her hand closing around the broken necklace as she thought of the fight she'd had with InuYasha.

Taking the stairs at a speedy enough pace, she looked around frantically when she reached the top. She spotted the youth closing the door of the shed where Grandpa kept all his maintenance and cleaning supplies.

"Houjou!" Kagome hailed him, and he greeted her with a diffident smile.

"Higurashi," He said as she stopped in front of him, "I--uh--"

"Here," Kagome stuck out her hand, and Houjou stared at the broken necklace.

"What are you--?"

"I'm sorry, Houjou. You have to understand that I can't accept a gift like this from you. I'm not doing this because of what InuYasha said, but because I love him, and only him."

Receiving the onyx pendant, he gawked at her as she slowly marched toward her house, a strange feeling of satisfaction mingling with the fire of resolution that now flickered in her heart, melting away her doubts and scruples.

__

Things have changed.


	10. Incentive

Incentive

"Ouch!"

Kagome sucked on her afflicted fingertip, backing away from the steaming pan before her as she leaned on the counter whereupon six obento were already stacked. She scowled at the stove top, hoping that getting burned by the food that was meant for InuYasha wasn't some kind of omen.

She hadn't been able to get a wink of sleep the night before, and so had used the free time to prepared obento for all her friends. The sun had risen not too long ago, and she was extremely proud of how great all the food had turned out. She reflected that her increased maturity and experience evinced itself in her cooking, now that she was nearly seventeen.

Hastening to prepare the rice balls, she tucked them into one of the compartments in InuYasha's obento before flitting back to the stove, scooping up the scalding eggs and sizzling fish and adding them as well. Having realized that she'd used up the last canister of pickles, she was doubled over before a low cabinet in a mad hunt for another jar when she heard a familiar voice.

"Oh, good morning, Higurashi. I just--uh--came in to feed Buyo."

Kagome stood up, dust bunnies in her ponytail, "That's fine."

He walked over to the bag of cat food, watching her out of the corner of his eye, "I hope you don't mind me asking; what's all the food for?"

Kagome flashed him a tired grin, "I'm making lunch for my friends."

"They're some lucky friends," Houjou said with a chuckle as Kagome fished a jar of pickles out from a dark corner of the cabinet.

"I'd rather think that I'm lucky to have them," Kagome said, but Houjou had already gone back outside.

Stuffing all seven obentos along with her sleeping bag and medical supplies and other necessities into Souta's old backpack, Kagome snuck out of the house, keeping a vigilant eye peeled for any sign of Houjou, her ears straining for the sounds of sweeping.

Feeling impervious, Kagome broke into a light jog as she made for the well house, trying not to pay attention to the slight throbbing of her ankle as she hurriedly entered the musty building and descended the stairs to the well.

Jumping in, the magical energy swirling about her, her body became weightless, as if her substance had ceased to subsist as the world around her grew younger. She felt herself light upon the earthen bottom of the well in the Sengoku Jidai, shivering at the leftover chill in the air from the night before.

"Look out!"

Tilting her chin upward, her view of the clouds floating above the square opening was obstructed by a fox-shaped shadow. The kitsune was plummeting toward her fast, but before he collided with her there was a loud _pop _as he took on his giant bubble form, squishing Kagome against the rangy vines that slithered up the walls.

"Shippou, what are you...? Uhn!" Kagome pushed at his pulpous body, but yielded no results.

"Sorry," with another _pop _he shrunk to normal size, and Kagome picked him up off the ground and cuddled him against her. "InuYasha came back without you yesterday, so I was trying to go to your time and get you, but the well won't let me through anymore."

Kagome giggled at his pout, a brow arching in rumination, "I don't know; that's really weird." She patted his head fondly, "So you're all better now, huh?"

"Yep," Shippou replied jocundly. "Your bag smells like food, Kagome."

Kagome laughed as Shippou attempted to crawl over her shoulder, nearly succeeding but for her hand pulling him back by the tail, "I made lunch for everyone, so I hope you're hungry."

Climbing out of the well after the kit, Kagome dug in her bag for her pink hoodie; the sky was all cold colors, and the wind lacked even a trace amount of warmth. Pulling the hoodie over her shirt, she pulled her bag back on and followed Shippou down the slope and along the path to the village, where the sounds of construction were already audible.

She took a deep breath, her nerves effervescing beneath the surface of her resolution. She had spent a great deal of time last night thinking of what she had to do, steeling herself to atone for her actions and words, which at the times they had taken place had seemed nugatory. She was reposing all her faith in the hope that one year would be more than enough time to show InuYasha that she loved him as a hanyou.

She was a little surprised when the village came into view; many of the huts had been restored to their previous conditions, and she spotted Miroku working on a half-erected hut with his sleeves rolled up. She followed Shippou to where Sango was sitting on a sanded log just outside Kaede's hut, and she set her bag on the ground as she filled the empty space beside the taijiya.

"Hey, Sango."

"Hi," She replied absently, her tone rather hostile.

Kagome opened her mouth to tell her friend about Toutousai, but caught herself just in the nick of time. She frowned at keeping something that she normally would have spilled her guts about from her best girlfriend, but she didn't have long to dwell on that when she spied Sango's irascible expression.

"Something the matter?" Kagome ventured.

Sango made a sound like a cat hissing, "Oh, nothing. I'm fine. Enjoying sitting here being a useless pregnant woman."

Kagome glanced at her friend's still-flat stomach beneath her purple and green kimono, unsure of what to say.

Sango narrowed her gaze as the Houshi walked past them, nodding to the two women and Shippou, "It's just what I've always wanted, to be worried over like a goddamn child and caged up like a cricket."

The miko laughed humorlessly, "You look pretty liberated to me."

Sango snorted, "That monk is _making_ me sit around 'to get my rest'! He won't let me help or do anything besides relieve myself--and I'll be damned if he tries to stop me from doing that."

"It sounds like he's concerned about you," Kagome inferred, learning all to swiftly that this was the wrong thing to say.

"Concerned is an understatement. Paranoid is what it is, telling me that walking five steps in one direction is strenuous labor!" She shouted, causing Shippou to duck behind Kagome.

Kagome didn't like the angry flush that covered Sango's face, and quickly dug in her bag for something to calm her down, "Here, Sango. I made everyone obento. Maybe we can all take a break from--well...we can all take a break."

"Thanks, Kagome!" Shippou squeaked, grabbing his obento from the open pack and throwing off the lid. His cheeks were stuffed full of rice balls before he even took his seat on the log.

Sango sighed, accepting her and Kirara's boxes, "Alright."

As the slayer wrestled with her lid Shippou pointed to the top of a hill, "Here come InuYasha and Kirara."

Sure enough, there were the hanyou and the fire-cat, Kirara harnessed to a makeshift sled piled high with logs, presumably freshly chopped by InuYasha. The two slid down the hill and through the wreckage of the village, approaching the hut that Miroku had been repairing only minutes ago.

A gust of wind hit Kagome from behind, and InuYasha's head snapped up, scenting her instantaneously. She winced at the momentary hurt that glittered in the depths of his eyes before he jerked his head back toward his current project.

She was shaken out of her reverie by Miroku's voice, "Did you make this obento for us, Kagome?"

She nodded as he set down a pail of some pasty substance, and retrieved a box from her backpack, "Where's Kaede? I made some for her too."

"I'm here, child," Kaede spoke hoarsely, joining them. Miroku passed her an obento and chopsticks.

Kagome swallowed her fear as InuYasha strode past them, seemingly oblivious to his friends' presence, "InuYasha! Do you want some lunch?"

He stopped, ears flattening slightly, though he didn't look at her as he answered, "I'm not hungry."

And with that he leapt away, disappearing into the forest. Miroku responded to Kagome's plaintive look with a shrug as kitten Kirara trotted up to nose her fish out from the midst of the vegetables in her obento. The schoolgirl quickly gathered up her backpack with the two remaining obentos and headed off in the direction of the Goshinboku.

InuYasha's forest wasn't as diversified in its noises as she remembered it being. She only picked up the occasional snapping of a twig or rustling of leaves in the wind. Reaching the clearing of the God Tree, Kagome's eyes were drawn to a patch of red that retreated higher into its branches as she stepped closer to the massive trunk.

Taking her time in settling herself at the foot of the great tree, she pulled her own obento into her lap after placing InuYasha's beside her. Deliberately raising her gaze to the dryly crackling boughs above her as she poked around with her chopsticks, she lifted an egg to her mouth.

She sighed, "Please come down, InuYasha."

She waited for him to move or say something, but he gave her the cold shoulder. She bit her lip.

"I guess I'll just have to eat your obento then," She called, disappointed when her threat did not have the desired effect. She might as well have been blackmailing her shadow. She even wondered for a fleeting second if InuYasha hadn't gone back to the village.

She groaned, feeling more ashamed than ever, and all of a sudden a bite of crunchy pickles sounded nauseating. Her stomach squirmed as she remembered what she'd said to him, and worst of all, how he'd interpreted it. Whether she'd meant to hurt him or not, she did.

"InuYasha," She said, her voice rasping, "I'm really s--"

A rough hand clamping over her mouth followed a whooshing sound as InuYasha dropped from the tree limbs above her and landed beside her.

"Don't apologize," He said quietly, his hand still covering her mouth. She blinked at him, and he withdrew his gaze once more, stuffing both hands into his billowing red sleeves.

Gently nursing the finger she'd burned while cooking his food, Kagome used her free hand to pick up his obento, "I made this for you."

Cautiously, he took the offering and peered under the lid lazily, "No ramen?"

A smile twitched the corner of Kagome's mouth, "Nope, just nasty pickles."

"Keh," InuYasha ignored the chopsticks that had come with the obento, instead grabbing a handful of pickles and stuffing them into his mouth.

Kagome giggled when he choked, his eyes bugging out as he swallowed the pickles with great difficulty. His expression was scandalized, "Ugh!"

"They aren't that bad, are they?" Kagome queried, wincing as she remembered that she hadn't bothered to check the expiration date on the jar. "Okay, maybe they are kind of old..."

"Are you trying to poison me, wench?"

"No! Why would I try to poison you?"

"Feh. I don't know," He eyed her obento suspiciously, reaching out and taking a pickle from her box.

"What are you--?" She started as he bit her pickle.

"Bleh! Yours are nasty too!" He tossed the pickle from him, revolted.

Kagome clutched her stomach as she laughed, "You though I would give you unpalatable food on purpose?"

He crossed his arms, eyes twinkling, "No, I was just testing your food for you."

Kagome giggled as she set her hardly-touched obento atop InuYasha's neglected one, _He's such a...mystery._

He eyed her dubiously, "You're not hungry anymore?"

She shrugged, curling into herself as a cool breeze assaulted her, "I guess not."

Casting him a sideways glance, she froze when she saw him glaring at a point on her neck around where the Shikon jewel rested. He started when he noticed her stare, hurrying to feign ignorance.

"I gave Houjou's necklace back, if that's what you're wondering."

She knew that he wanted to deny it, but his own curiosity must have been too much for him, "Why?"

Kagome sighed, the wind playing with the drawstrings of her hoodie, tendrils of her dark hair floating about, "I...I didn't mean to hurt you--with what I said. I'm sorry."

The hanyou's brows furrowed as he muttered, "I told you not to apologize, dammit."

She cradled her afflicted finger in subdued frustration, "Well, I'm saying it. You were right."

InuYasha was staring at the forest canopy wearing a pensive scowl that doubled Kagome's guilt.

__

He has every right not to accept my apology. Who am I kidding, I don't even have the right to apologize after how I made him feel.

She watched him intently, her hands shaking slightly as she contemplated what to do next. His insecurities were suffocating her as she sat beside him in Goshinboku's roots, an emotional wall separating them by what seemed miles. His ears twitched a few times when the wind stroked the fine silver hairs. Kagome smiled.

__

I bet he really doesn't know how special those ears are. He probably hates them, She sighed as she recalled the place where they'd first met so very long ago.

Making to reach out for his ear, she quelled the urge with all she had, folding her hands in her lap, _No, I can't. If we're going to talk, it has to be on a level playing field. If I want to show him that I truly love him as a hanyou, I'm going to have to make myself as vulnerable as he is._

"Do you--uh--remember when we first met? Right here, two years ago," Kagome spoke quietly, looking up at the place she'd found InuYasha pinned to the God Tree.

"Yeah," He replied charily, slanting her an inquisitive glance.

She took a deep breath, girding herself, "That wasn't actually the first time we'd met."

He blinked down at her, "Huh?"

"I-I saw you earlier on, the morning of the day Mistress Centipede chased me to the Goshinboku. You didn't wake up though, even when I..."

"When you what?"

Embarrassed heat stole over her face, and she smiled at the fact that InuYasha would never know how much it cost her to admit what she was about to, "I kind of--touched your ears."

She didn't look at him, but she had a feeling he was ogling her with something likened to awe. She dared a peek at him when he cleared his throat, puppy ears flicking atop his head as he gazed into the distance, his cheeks reddening ever so slightly, "Y-You touched them?"

She grinned bashfully, "Well...I sort of..."

Tentatively, she stretched her arm and touched his ear, just as she had the first day she'd fallen through the well, when she had been searching for some vestige of familiarity in the strange new word she had found herself in. So she had gone to the Goshinboku, and there she had discovered the boy sitting beside her now, his eyes wide, golden beacons shining down on her.

She saw confusion cloud the light of his gaze as she rubbed his ear tenderly, giving him everything he couldn't ask for. Perhaps he didn't know what exactly it was that he needed, or that he needed anything at all, but she gave it to him, and he accepted.

His confusion evanesced as he leaned into her hand and sighed, closing his eyes as she gently scratched the base of his ear, his soft silver hair caressing her fingers.

"Kagome...," He said languidly, speaking from within the haze of a deep stupor. "You didn't have to give that necklace back to that kid."

Fondling his ear as he slumped against her, she whispered, "I think I did, InuYasha. I...I _wanted_ to give it back."

She let her hand fall from his ear, granting him awareness once more, and she blushed as their eyes met. Amber pierced brown with a driving force, his nose only inches from hers. Despite her warm layers she felt suddenly exposed, though it wasn't a bad feeling. It was as if she were closer to InuYasha, and she could almost hear the mortar of his emotional rampart crumbling as it collapsed in on itself.

Kagome fumbled for the obentos and chopsticks and dumped them carelessly back into her knapsack, "How about we go and help the others finish fixing up the village?"

He grinned, prizing her backpack from her grip and swinging it over his shoulder, "Sounds like a plan."

Kagome squealed as he hefted her into his arms with a singularly fluid motion, sprinting through the forest at the speed of the wind.

The miko was smiling widely, a healthy flush dusting her cheeks as InuYasha set her down outside Kaede's hut.

"Looks like nobody wanted your poisoned pickles, wench," InuYasha remarked, not bothering to mask his amusement as he nudged an obento that was empty save for the pickles with his bare foot. All the other boxes around it were just like it.

"Shippou tasted the crunchy things first, so we all knew not to eat them," Sango told the couple matter-of-factly, working sedulously at sewing together the reeds of a bamboo door flap, her aura much more cheerful compared to what it had been when Kagome had arrived. Ever perceptive of her friends' scrutiny, Sango answered their unasked query, "Miroku's letting me help with the door flaps."

"I'll help too," Kagome volunteered, kneeling beside the taijiya, who began to instruct her on the basic concept of looming.

The hours breezed by like the clouds above them, InuYasha, Kirara, and Miroku raising house after house. By midafternoon half of the village was reconstituted, and the weather was holding up nicely.

"Kagome! Come over here and help me with this, will you?" InuYasha called to her.

She obliged him, coming to his aid, "What should I do?"

InuYasha was holding up a wall that consisted of five logs of ample bulk, the space beneath them barren of any support but his arms, "Just get one of those pegs over there and stick it in the corner--the rabbet--right there. Damn fox thought it would be funny to mimic a log with his kitsune magic."

Kagome chortled airily, but stopped when she saw the logs slip somewhat in InuYasha's grasp, "Okay, pegs...pegs--here!"

Kagome snatched up a wooden peg and thrust it into the corner where the boles met at a right angle. InuYasha heaved a sigh as he let go of the wall, straightening up to survey his handiwork.

"You're good at building things, you know," Kagome mentioned, sidling up beside him.

"Feh," InuYasha brushed off her praise with marked insouciance, though not before she'd spotted the proud twitch of his lip. "Well, no thanks to you, I've helped rebuild just about every village in Musashi."

Kagome was about to retort, but both of their attentions were gleaned by a bubbling laugh that seemed to be coming from within the hut wall itself.

"What on earth?" Kagome's countenance manifested shock as the peg she had just inserted began to wiggle out of its niche, cackling madly as it threw off sparks of all different colors.

"Fuck," InuYasha growled, grabbing Kagome and darting away just as a conflagrant explosion of filled the air, the sound of boles tumbling down crashing in their ears.

When Kagome opened her eyes it was to see InuYasha, his hair covered in woodchips and his body bent over hers as she lay on the ground in the midst of an avalanche of logs.

The laughing they had heard grew louder, and with a dull _flump_ Shippou landed a top InuYasha, laughing his little head off.

The hanyou unleashed a carnivorous snarl, grabbing for the fox who dodged his hands and laughed. Kagome watched, feeling strangely sentimental as InuYasha kicked the remnants of the hut off his legs and tore after the kit, shouting obscenities and death threats of varied gruesomeness.

That night, as the thumbnail moon rose to the heaven's peak, the group of enervated humans and demons sat around a fire outside Kaede's hut. They had finally finished repairing the village a few hours after the cool recurring of dusk.

Sango and Miroku were curled in each other's arms, the latter observing the demon-slayer with a distinct brightness in his dark blue eyes as the light of the flames warmed his shakuju. Kaede sat beside them, seeming lost in her own thoughts. Kirara lay beside Shippou, licking the multiple contusions on his skull as the kit yawned, showing off needle-sharp fangs. InuYasha lay stretched out on his back and propped up on his elbows, his expression one of lassitude as he wiggled his toes precariously close to the flames. The young miko sat not far to his right, her sweatshirt gone in the wake of the fire blazing in the pit.

A lightning bug that had been hovering over the fire popped and screamed as it was consumed in a burst of glowing ash, and the inuhanyou's voice intruded upon the congenial quietude, "We should set out tomorrow."

Sango lifted her head tardily, Miroku brushing her bangs from her eyes, "Where to?"

"Takakuri of course," He replied.

"It will not be that easy, InuYasha," Miroku said. "We do not know the location of the Taiyoukai of the South, and wandering into his lands again after his son's blatant warning would be tantamount to poking a sleeping dragon-youkai in the eye."

The hanyou scoffed at this, "Don't tell me you're afraid of that bastard. He snuck up on us last time."

Miroku was not convinced, "Takakuri practices a most dangerous magic. Just look what he did to Shippou; the damage caused by Kagome's miko arrow lasted for days, and Kagome has yet to fully recover from her fox-fire burns."

Sango nodded, "I've never encountered a youkai quite like him; one who uses such a unique brand of magic and hypnosis. Not to mention his appearance is one of a kind, with his scaly skin and attributes that are characteristic to kitsune."

"He's no kitsune," Shippou chipped in. "He didn't even smell like one. Well, he smelled a little like one."

"Furball's right," InuYasha averred. "Takakuri stank of snake, but also butterfly-youkai and tiger-youkai."

"The Taiyoukai of the South must be a motley demon to sire such a child," The Houshi commented.

"Masaki."

The group turned their heads in unison, and Kagome fingered the light pink jewel about her neck nervously, "The Southern Taiyoukai's name is Masaki."

"How'd you know that?" The dog-eared boy asked suspiciously.

__

Oh great, I get to lie some more. Toutousai better thank me for this, "I mean...I just heard it somewhere--in a town."

"Right. Hedge all you want, Kagome; I'll find out sooner or later," InuYasha promised.

Kagome swallowed.

"Ye believe ye will come to possess the entire Shikon no Tama." Kaede stated baldly.

InuYasha snorted, "Of course. It ain't that hard. We just need Takakuri's shards, the shards Miroku has, and Koha--"

He cut off abruptly when Sango averted her eyes. Kagome saw it as the perfect time to change the subject.

"InuYasha has a theory about how to destroy Naraku using the Shikon no Tama."

The inuhanyou met her gaze, and she got the impression that he was trying to discourage her from saying anything more.

"What is that?" asked the elder miko.

Heedless of the deterring glances InuYasha was pinioning her with, she continued in a subdued tone, "He said that maybe he could use it to wish Naraku human."

A dubious silence ensued, lasting only a few brief seconds before InuYasha crowed, "Keh! It was just a dumb idea! It's not like it would really work."

The taijiya shook her head, "I don't know. There are too many contingencies that could come with a plan like that."

Kagome flinched at the accurateness of Sango's statement, though the movement went unnoticed as the others squabbled.

"It is not completely fallible," The old miko croaked. "Naraku is a hanyou. Wishing him back to a human would likely destroy the jewel as well as rid the world of his sublime evil."

"Forgive me, Kaede, but the chances of such a wish backfiring spectacularly are too great."

Kagome listened with frenzied awareness, imbibing her friends' banter through her every cell, _The chance of this backfiring _is_ great, but I can stop it. Now that I know what will happen--what I have to do--we can destroy Naraku while still keeping InuYasha alive._

"You're right, Miroku," Kagome said quietly, facing the monk's somber visage. "The risk that the Shikon no Tama will turn that wish inside out is high, but we have to take that chance."

The Houshi blinked at her, "Kagome?"

She glanced at InuYasha, who was watching her through hooded golden eyes, "Trust me. InuYasha's plan is the way to defeat Naraku. I know it is."

She stared each of them in the eye, seeing her own resolve reflected in the depths of her friends' gazes. InuYasha was the last one to meet her penetrating stare, "Feh. Whatever, I suppose it couldn't hurt to try."

Shippou nodded as he spun his top around in the dirt, the others making gestures of assent. Kaede eyed the younger miko analytically as she spoke, "Aye. Kagome has always had a reliable intuition."

"So...we leave at sunrise."

Miroku shook his head, "We still have a very pertinent matter to consider, InuYasha."

InuYasha etched tiny rivers in the ground with his claws, "What might that be?"

"How will we avoid getting ambushed by Takakuri this time? We don't have any clues as to where he or 'Masaki' might reside," Miroku explained as he rubbed Sango's shoulder, and Kagome had a hunch that it was this action that had brought the pronounced glower to the eyes of the hanyou beside her.

"I have an idea," The schoolgirl interjected. As soon as she had everyone's attention she resumed speaking, "We could start out by finding Sesshoumaru."

"Does Sesshoumaru know the whereabouts of the Taiyoukai of the South?" Sango questioned.

Kagome hesitated, _I can't tell them about Sesshoumaru being in love with Masaki's mate, or else they'll wonder where I'm getting this information. They're already getting suspicious._

Gaze darting from face to face, Kagome licked her lips, "Well, last time we met with Takakuri he was there because Sesshoumaru was attacking the humans in his father's lands, right?"

"That is correct," Miroku said in a tone that encouraged her to keep talking.

"So if we find Sesshoumaru, we'll find Takakuri, and when we find Takakuri," Kagome smirked, "We can find out where he lives."

"Not bad," InuYasha said after a few second's silence, his voice inflected with subtle pride. "Not a bad idea at all."

"That's assuming Takakuri brought the shards back to his father," The Houshi stated. "We may not need to go so far as to follow him home."

"He may have lost the shards to a more powerful demon," Sango added. "Maybe even Naraku."

"Keh, well it's the best damn lead we've got, and it's up to us to make sure we get those shards before Naraku gets so much as a whiff of them." InuYasha said with commanding finality. He then addressed Kaede. "You think the villagers will be back soon, or do you want we should stay until they are?"

"This old goat can fend for herself," Kaede answered in a smiling tone as she rubbed her bandaged shoulder.

InuYasha grinned, flashing his fangs, and Kagome's heart skipped a few beats. It only got worse when the hanyou cast her a sidelong glance, "You've got enough supplies in that bag of yours to last a good while, I hope?"

Kagome nodded, still feeling a bit unsteady.

Shippou, who had wandered over to the taijiya's side, tugged on her sleeve, "I think you should get some rest, Sango. We're going to be up pretty early, and I'm sure it will be a long day."

The monk glowered at the kit, "That's my job, Shippou."

"It's mine too; I'm the big brother," Shippou made a stubborn face. "Don't you care about your mate's health?"

Sango sighed, slapping a hand over the monk's mouth before he could make a single utterance, "I'm going to sleep, okay?"

Shippou sneered at Miroku as Sango retired to the shelter of Kaede's hut, the two-tailed fire-kitten and the fox kit following at her heels. The Houshi stayed where he was as Kagome and InuYasha got up, the former glancing at the inuhanyou uncertainly.

__

Maybe--maybe he'll sleep with me again, like he did two nights ago, Kagome thought wistfully. _I know he's not really used to showing affection, especially with everyone around, but--_

"'Night, Kagome," InuYasha said gruffly before taking the path up the hill that led to his favorite sleeping tree.

Her sigh was lost in the gust of wind that played with InuYasha's moon-bright hair as he retreated further into the darkness, "Goodnight."

__

This might be more difficult than I thought.


	11. Temptation

Temptation

A dewy mist eclipsed the newly erected huts of the village as the predawn light filtered in through the gaps in the bamboo flap that served as Kaede's door.

Kagome awoke, her body ensconced in her warm sleeping bag, just as the hazy beams were slipping past the threshold. She was wondering what had caused her premature arousal when she heard a tiny sniff. It came from a nearby lump quivering under her covers, and she pulled them back to see Shippou, curled up in the fetal position and wearing an agonized expression, crying quietly.

Kagome ran her thumb over his pudgy cheek, brushing away the tears. He peered up at her with watery eyes, the green hue that normally evinced his facile naiveté and innocence now darkened, revealing the turmoil that lay below the surface.

"I was just...thinking about...Papa and Mama...and my brothers and sisters," He said tearfully, a slight pule in his voice.

Salty tears stung the corners of her eyes as she drew him close, letting him cry into her shirt. She offered him solace in her arms, tacitly telling him that she understood.

Mornings like these were only a fraction of the reason why she despised Naraku. So pernicious was his evil, so vile his heart, that he would traumatize a child as sweet, fun-loving, and special as Shippou, branding him with scars that would take a lifetime and a half to heal.

Visions of the many times she had waited at an unconscious InuYasha's side bandaging his beaten body zipped past her mind's eye. He had kept only one scar out of all the wounds he'd ever had, and it lay directly over his heart. It was the place where Kikyou's arrow had pierced him. Every time she and Sango bathed together Kagome saw the horrible cicatrix left by her younger brother's Kusarigama. Miroku...his scar was unique in that not many had the faculty to destroy the person they lacerated.

Kagome sat up in bed, rocking Shippou back and forth, stroking his hair as he wept. His tiny body, though a bit bigger than it had been when fate had arranged their first meeting, was no heavier than that of a small sack of rice.

Peeking about the hut, Kagome noticed that they were the only ones there, everyone else already up and about. The last embers in the hearth having died out hours ago, only the dull rays of burgeoning sunlight illuminated Shippou's chestnut hair, "You're not alone, Shippou. You'll never be alone."

He nodded against her chest, wee fists twisted in the blue cloth of her shirt as a moist breeze forced the bamboo flap aside, the sunshine flickering through the many slits in the reed door.

"Let's go watch the sunrise. It always makes me feel better when I'm sad or scared," Kagome cooed, kicking off her sleeping bag.

After leaving the warmth of the hut, Kagome carried Shippou to the periphery of the village and up a slope, her bare soles skimming the dew-laden grass as she made for the crest. Sitting down, she sighed as she observed the land before her, painted with the rose light of the sunrise, the glass surfaces of the rice patty fields glowing gold. She stroked the Shikon shard on her necklace as it fluoresced a pale pink under the amethyst expanse of the heavens, the young fox shifting around in her lap and rubbing his eyes as he watched the scene of ephemeral beauty with a somberness that belied his years.

- - - -

Stretched out on the roof of Kaede's hut with his head propped up on his palm, the hanyou's golden eyes took in the sight of the miko and the kitsune sitting at the top of the hill, the mingled scents of their tears swimming in his nostrils.

He had experienced many a morning like this, Kagome and Shippou watching the sunrise as the smell of their grief tainted the virgin breeze. The kit was lucky in that respect; he was babied, cuddled, cared for by his four surrogate parents who shared their worldly wisdoms with him in any way they were able. Kagome had always been the best when it came to matters of the heart though. How many times had she been there for him, enabled him to forget about the bad things? All it took was a simple brush of her hand against his, one of her resplendent smiles.

__

Mother used to hold me like that when we would watch the sunrise, InuYasha thought as the wind ruffled Kagome's hair. _Kagome...she's..._

He grimaced, casting his eyes about him covertly. No one was there.

__

She's beautiful, InuYasha failed to stifle his sigh, and his body sagged as a blissful lethargy seeped through him.

All awareness having been sapped in his Kagome-induced torpor, he didn't register the slipping of the clay underfoot until it was too late. With a loud clattering of tiles the hanyou slid off the roof and landed on the ground outside Kaede's door with a _thump._

He gasped for air as he stared up at the sky dazedly, his senses taking their time returning to him. Sango's concerned voice reached him along with the patter of footsteps coming closer, "What's wrong with you, InuYasha?"

Face burning, he mumbled, "Nothing. Ow!" He complained as a renegade tile belatedly tumbled off the roof and shattered on his forehead.

Sango's face came into focus, the ponytail that went with her slayer uniform drooping over her shoulder to tickle his face as she hovered above him. He was slightly repulsed by her redolence, which was as much Miroku's scent as it was hers. "I thought dogs always landed on their feet."

"That would be cats, dear Sango," Miroku said, appearing at her side. He extended his gloved hand to the hanyou, "Allow me to help you--"

"I don't need your damn hand!" InuYasha snarled, springing to his feet. Kirara peered up at him curiously, "What are you looking at? Stop dawdling!"

Mewling, the kitten's body became engulfed in fire as she took on the giant appearance of her alter ego.

Shifting to face the pair still sitting atop the hill, he consoled his infringing upon their melancholy with the mental image of wringing Takakuri's greasy neck in his claws, which would only happen if they tracked down his half-brother.

"We have to get going," InuYasha grunted when he'd bounded up to them, his arms hidden under billowing red sleeves.

Shippou peeked over Kagome's shoulder, his now dry eyes locking onto the hanyou timidly, and InuYasha could see the green orbs becoming opaque once more, bottling up the pain the hanyou knew all too well. Kagome then stood up, allowing the fox to hop out of her arms so he could join Miroku and Sango on Kirara's back.

She flashed InuYasha a demure smile, her brown eyes sparkling like diamonds from within her shadowy visage made darker by the pool of crimson sunlight on the horizon just behind her--a flawless imitation of her miko aura. He turned his head away as soon as he realized that he was blushing, offering her his back whilst trying to force his heart out of his throat, "Get on, wench."

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

"No," He rebounded without thinking.

"Keh," She said playfully. "_I _need my backpack."

A smile twitched the corners of InuYasha's lips as Kagome flounced past him to Kaede's hut, emerging with her giant blue pack in the yellow one's stead.

Skipping toward him, she jumped just as InuYasha pivoted, catching her thighs as she landed on his back. She grasped his shoulders through his thick haori as he took to the skies, Kirara tailing him.

That day was a good one for traveling, a clement zephyr complementing the effulgent sun and slightly cloudy weather. Combined with the freedom of pushing the limit of his speed and having Kagome nestled on his back, the balmy ambience made InuYasha more content than he'd had the privilege of being recently.

"Kagome," InuYasha hissed her name as he leapt across the cap a dusty plateau, trying to catch up with Kirara. "Have you sensed anything yet? A jewel shard?"

He frowned when she didn't answer. She had been quiet for the past few hours. Now a little after midday, it was the time when Kagome would normally have been talking the fuzz off his ear.

He glanced at her over his shoulder, and his eyes widened at the sight of the sleeping miko, her head pillowed in his mane of alabaster hair, a strand or two caressing her face as he jumped down a steep slope.

His first thought was that it would serve her right if he were to shout her awake; they could have bypassed a shard and not known it! As soon as the idea of jostling her out of her nap solidified however, her happy sigh made him hesitate. They hadn't even left the western lands yet, and it wasn't as if he couldn't sniff out Sesshoumaru or Takakuri if they were near.

__

I don't know why I'm letting her get away with stuff anyway. She's not even awake to fight me on it! InuYasha thought with a snort as she snuggled into his neck. A quiet smile flitted over his lips as he flew onward.

Another hour passed before they stopped to eat, Kirara and InuYasha touching down in the center of a forest glade. The sounds of a river purling could be heard not far off.

InuYasha set Kagome down in the grass as Miroku gathered the kindling for Shippou to light with his fox-fire, "Oi, Kagome."

"Mm?" Eyes opening slowly, her pupils shrank from the sunlight. "Wha--? I was asleep?"

"I guess you were," InuYasha said in a fabricated tone that suggested he might get angry.

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I--uh...," His cheeks pinked as he looked away. "You seemed tired."

Kagome yawned, blind to his discomfort as she pulled her backpack off and fished around in it for their lunch, "I guess I've just been having trouble sleeping."

"Keh! Looked like you were sleeping pretty well from where I was standing," InuYasha muttered. Kagome giggled, a barely noticeable redness dusting her cheeks.

"Kitsune bi!" Shippou shouted, and the sticks that had been piled in the small patch of dirt caught fire, the twigs snapping and crackling as they combusted.

"Do you have to say 'Kitsune bi' every time you use your fox magic?" Miroku asked conversationally.

"It helps me focus," The kit replied, folding his arms over his chest.

"I'm going to go and get some water to boil the ramen and stuff," Kagome informed them as she hefted her pack over her shoulder once more and headed off toward the sound of the stream.

"I'm coming with you," InuYasha declared.

He heard Shippou's exasperated voice saying as he was walking away, "It's a wonder Kagome doesn't 'Osuwari' him, the way he tags after her all the time."

"She didn't get water enough to make it how I like last time!" InuYasha shouted back before stomping after Kagome.

He followed her through the coppice and the few meters to the stream, his hands tucked in his sleeves.

"You don't trust me to get enough water?" Kagome questioned, digging an armful of water bottles from under the mass of school books.

"Feh, just because you don't get enough water doesn't mean I don't trust you. See, you only filled it up halfway!" He accused, throwing out a claw at the barely filled container that she'd carelessly immerged in the stream. "I don't want dry noodles."

She shook her head, but filled it up a bit more anyway, "I'm glad."

"Yeah, you should be. Dry ramen is a sin of nature."

"No, I meant," She straightened up, holding the bottle to her bosom, "I'm glad you trust me."

"Of course I trust you, Kagome," InuYasha said, meaning it. _I trust you more than I've ever been able to trust anyone since Mother died._

Her saccharine smile made him wish he could confess all that he felt for her, "I trust you too, InuYasha. More than you'll ever know."

Staring down at her, something fell into place deep within his subconscious. His inhibitions melted away as the sensation intensified, his demon blood roiling inside his distending heart. The sudden, inexplicable urge to take her in his arms and cover her with his scent was only obtunded by his frenzied denial of the possibility that Kagome might accept his advances.

__

She said it herself: we can't--we can't_ be together. A human and a hanyou can never be...just like Kikyou said. It's wishful thinking, nothing but a fantasy._

He egressed from the dark confines of his mind when he realized Kagome was moving toward him. The distance between them shortening with each soft footfall of her shoes, her hand coming to rest over his heart, "I just wish I could show you how much I trust you."

Her words sent his imagination spiraling out of control, _Fuck! I can't do this!_

He wouldn't let himself return her touch, couldn't reach out for her no matter how much he ached to respond to her soul's melody. It took every last particle of his self-control to keep his hands anchored at his sides as his name left her lips in a whisper.

"InuYasha...I trust you...I could never not...trust..."

As she stared up at him with an all to familiar luster in her gaze the knowledge that he could only resist the temptation for so long was poignant.

Had not something gone terribly wrong in that instant his body would have betrayed every one of his disincentives. It came in the form of a gelatinous tentacle shooting out of the depths of the water to wrap itself around Kagome's ankle, yanking her away from him and into the river's depths.

"InuYasha!"

Instant panic inundated the hanyou, "Kagome!"

There were no prerequisites to his leaping toward her and grabbing hold of her hands, her cries for help smothered as the bluish-gray tentacle pulled them both below the surface.

Meanwhile, back at camp their friends had heard the commotion and arrived at the riverfront to meet the sight of Kagome's abandoned pack and water bottles.

Sango was the first one to overcome her shock, dropping Hiraikotsu and making for the river. Before she could dive in however, Miroku caught her by the arm.

"Please, Sango! I don't want you putting yourself in harm's way!"

"Dammit, Miroku, our friends are at the bottom of that river!" She screeched, her umber eyes tinged with hysteria.

"_ROAR!_"

The earth quaked as a flash of fire zoomed between the pair, the fire-cat diving into the waters.

"Let me go, baka!" Sango shouted struggling against her betrothed's mighty hold.

"Shippou!" Miroku signaled to the kit whilst steering Sango toward him.

"What are you--?" Sango's words died in her throat when she ran headlong into the giant pink orb that was Shippou, who used his ductile vastness to keep her away from the river, where Miroku stood waiting at the ready.

He jumped when InuYasha emerged from the river soaking wet, an equally drenched miko in his arms. Panting as he clambered up the bank, the hanyou laid Kagome out on the ground, where she lay unmoving, but breathing.

Shippou having resiled after being thwarted, Sango joined the threesome at the riverbank, "Where's Kirara?"

At that precise moment a torrent of water exploded as if from a geyser, bringing the fire-neko out of the river along with a mammoth, tentacle-covered youkai, orange pupils blazing in the centers of its furious red eyes.

"An octopus!" Shippou shrieked from behind the shelter of Sango's discarded weapon.

"It's not a... Shit, it is," InuYasha growled, pulling Kagome further away from the shore.

****

"The Shikon no Tama is mine to possess!" The octopus-youkai thundered, and his jaw went slack when he saw that the thing had their fragment clutched in one of its eight mucilaginous arms.

Before it could bring the shard to its rictal orifice however, Kirara lunged, biting down on the appendage, its greenish blood splattering all over them as she severed it with a jerk of her head.

****

"NO!" The creature cried as the Shikon no Tama fell into the stream with a _plunk_.

InuYasha would have dove after it then, _I can't leave Kagome!_

The monk seemed to have read his mind, because next thing Miroku had thrown his staff aside, "I'll get it!"

"Miroku!" Sango screamed as he pierced the water's surface, a tentacle missing him by inches.

The slayer raced to recover her weapon as what few tentacles that hadn't been sundered by Kirara penetrated the water after the Houshi, and before she could register the frightened cry of a certain Kitsune, Hiraikotsu was hurling toward the grayish extremities of the octopus-youkai that threatened the monk that had gone in pursuit of the jewel fragment, Shippou clinging to the bone-boomerang for dear life.

"Shippou, no!" Sango yelled as the octopus batted Hiraikotsu aside as if it were a plaything, Shippou's claws failing him. The kitsune was sent flying through the shower of green mucus as the weapon gouged the earth on the opposite bank.

"AAAAAAHHHH!" Shippou screamed as he flew helplessly toward the monstrous octopus, but it seemed kismet had different plans when Kirara intercepted him, the kit landing in the safety of her buttermilk fur. "Kirara, you saved me!"

Soaring in fiery circles around the river-monster, she snapped at the constantly oscillating extremities with her massive jaws. The creature wailed and screeched when Kirara ripped off the tentacle that had twisted itself around her flaming foot, flailing madly as it tried to catch her. Shippou shrieked once more as it unleashed a hidden arsenal of appendages that twisted around the cat and fox, bringing them to its ugly face.

****

"Aberrant neko!" It crowed, Kirara and Shippou trapped within four thick, jellylike arms. **"Now you will feel the sting of retribution, servant of humans!"**

She yowled as the octopus sunk its aciculate fangs into her, her body convulsing as Shippou watched in horror.

"Kirara!" Sango hollered, tears leaking from her eyes as she wracked her brain for a way to get Hiraikotsu back.

What happened next was over before anyone could comprehend just what had taken place; a small something shot out of the surrounding trees to strike the octopus-youkai in the eyeball at light speed, wrenching a howl of pain from the creature just before it was hit once more in the other eye.

The distraction liberated the pair from the thing's grasp, and Shippou clung to the unconscious neko-youkai in his arms as her body shrank back into that of a kitten's at the pitch of her supple arc toward the riverbank.

"No!" Sango wept, running over to kneel beside the kitsune as he and Kirara rolled to a stop on the riverbank. "Kirara!"

"Leave them alone, River-demon! You're fight's with me!"

Everyone present turned toward origin of the newcomer's voice. Perched in the boughs of a towering elm was a ferine old man, his nakedness covered by thick furs and his wrinkled skin clinging to his muscles. His head was bare of all but a few hoary strands and he held a slingshot in one hand. His other hand was supporting Miroku, whose sodden violet robes were sticking to his skin. Assumably having been rescued by the old tree-swinger, the monk held onto the Shikon no Kakera's necklace with a grip as tenuous as the thread that kept him suspended above the abyss of unconsciousness.

From Kirara's side the taijiya sucked in a sharp breath, "Miroku!"

The octopus-youkai cackled darkly, green blood pouring from its eyes, **"You intend to defeat me with your petty human weapons? I shall devour you as I did your entire village!"**

The old man bared yellow teeth, "Today is the day I, Basuto, get my revenge and slay you, hell-beast!" Searching for a stone to equip his slingshot with, his gaze came to rest on the jewel in Miroku's hand. Snatching it out of his fingers, Basuto deposited the Shikon no Tama in the cradle and took aim at the octopus.

"You idiot! Don't--!" InuYasha's deterrent came too late; the old man released the elastic that bridged the V of the slingshot and the jewel nailed the creature in the head in a conflagration of magenta.

****

"Basuto, you fool!" It bellowed, the waters riling about its remaining tentacles. **"You have given me the Jewel of Four Souls!"**

"InuYasha."

At Kagome's barely breathed words the hanyou's head snapped back to her sopping wet form, her obsidian hair spraying in a wet fan about her head, "Kagome?"

"InuYasha, my jewel shard--"

"Don't worry about it, Kagome," He said firmly, squeezing her hand. "I'll kill that puny youkai."

The hanyou stood, stepping up to the shoreline, the water churning and spuming at his feet as the octopus glared down at him, its body taking on a reddish glow. The blinding light that heralded the transforming of Tessaiga as InuYasha drew it out caused the creature's demented laughter escalate as the fused fangs of his father's and his own mouth quivered expectantly in his grasp.

The few tentacles left intact snaked up the riverbank toward him, **"You will meet the same fate as your cat friend, hanyou scum!"**

"Shut up and take your medicine!" InuYasha barked, tilting his sword at the octopus-youkai. "Kaze no Kizu!"

White lightnings crackled along the length of the blade, rivaling the sun as they discharged, riving through the river-youkai until it was nothing but dust. As the octopus' howl of pain died out among the trees the Shikon no Tama fell dutifully into InuYasha's waiting hand, the waters continuing to foam and fume.

Turning away from the steaming river, he sheathed Tessaiga and fell to his knees beside Kagome. He was covered in as much octopus blood and water as she was, the Jewel of Four Souls dangling from his clawed fingers.

"Are you alright?" They asked one another in unison.

Kagome replied first, a faint grin turning up the corners of her lips, "I'm fine, just...wet."

"You sure?" InuYasha sniffed her, supporting her back as he helped her into a sitting position.

"I said so, didn't I?" She retorted, though it didn't contain her usual bite. "Are you okay?"

"Keh, what do you think?" He answered, relieved that she hadn't been hurt.

"Thank Kami!" She flung her arms around him, and InuYasha could do little more than blush as Sango walked over to them, Shippou on her shoulder and Kirara laying limp in her arms. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"K-Kagome?" The inuhanyou stuttered as the miko sighed in relief. _Was it just the demon that made her so worried?_

Both sets of cheeks burned red when the voice of the old forest-dweller divested relief of its grip on them, "You."

Carelessly letting go of the Houshi, Basuto stepped up to the hanyou bearing an unreadable expression, "You have slain the river-demon."

InuYasha didn't recognize the look in the old man's eyes. Getting to his feet warily, he shielded Kagome from the fur-covered troglodyte's view, "Yeah, so what?"

The hanyou expected to be yelled at, insulted, perhaps even pelted with rocks from the old man's slingshot. The last thing he expected was for Basuto to fall prostrate on the ground before him as if he were a god, kissing his feet in abject reverence.

So shell-shocked was he that he couldn't even muster the disgust to yank his foot away from the old man's parched lips, "What the fuck are you doing?"

Basuto straightened up, still bowing low, "You have avenged my village and my kin. For that I owe you my gratitude."

"Is he okay?" InuYasha heard Kagome saying, and he looked to see her over near Sango, who was aiding Miroku in gaining his feet.

"I'm not sure," The taijiya replied.

"I'll be alright. I've endured far more exhausting exercises," The monk said, a lascivious glint in his eye as he steadied himself on her shoulder with one hand, his other hand moving precariously low.

The taijiya stared at the fire-cat in the crook of her arm morosely, "The octopus-youkai's bite contained a mephitic paralyzing agent. If we don't find a cure soon, Kirara may never m-move...you _hentai_!"

"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!" Miroku cried as Sango grabbed him by the ear, successfully freeing herself from his grope as the kitsune on her shoulder shook his head.

"Where can we find the herbs for the cure?" Kagome queried when Sango was through with the Houshi.

Sango sighed, "They only grow in the far north this time of year, but I don't see how we can make it in time..."

"You say your two-tail has been bitten?" The old man asked suddenly.

"Yes," Sango began cautiously. "Do you know where we could find a cure nearby?"

Basuto nodded, "Your two-tail can be cured at my forest home. You must cross the river by foot however; all the bridges were destroyed long ago."

"No problem," InuYasha spoke up, his feet leaving large tracks in the sandy bank as he approached the river. "I'll take you guys across."

Everyone, as well as Kagome's backpack, had made it across in two trips. After Sango reacquired Hiraikotsu, the old man led them in the direction of his home, flinging himself from tree to tree ahead of them as ably an orangutan. They followed Basuto a short distance through the shady forest, Sango's visage becoming darker with every second that Kirara's eyes stayed closed. Soon the trees began to grow sparser and sunlight more abundant, so when they arrived at the top of a small slope overlooking a wide valley the sight shone before them in all its glory.

In the center of the vale was a behemoth of trees, its branches stroking the heavens and a dense cluster of clouds with the texture of cotton candy seeming to crown the tree. Nestled in the largest nook was Basuto's home, but it wasn't just any home. They saw as they walked down the slope and plied the lush expanse of land to the great tree that it was more like a mansion, forged from naught but boles and clay.

"Fifty years ago this entire valley was inhabited by my village," Basuto told them as they stopped at the base of the colossal trunk. "In that time long ago the river ran through here, but one day the waters brought with them no fish, and that was the day the river-demon slew my family and the rest of them."

His tone was dark as he gazed up at the swaying branches of the tree, not really seeing them. the sounds of Sango's footsteps broke the silence as she walked up beside him, placing her hand on his shoulder in a gesture of understanding. He turned his discoid eyes to her, then to the fire-neko that was breathing laboriously in her arms.

"It was the day before I constructed my home from the logs of the other huts that I met Mageru. He helped me fight off the river-demon, he changed the river's course so that I wouldn't be plagued with attacks, he vowed to stay with me until the river-demon was killed and the death of his mate avenged...," Basuto heaved a sigh, rubbing his temples. "And he was the one who rid me of the river-demon's poison."

"Is Mageru the cure you spoke of? Will he be able to help Kirara?" Sango questioned.

Basuto nodded, "Yes."

"Okay," The silver-haired hanyou began, "I'll take everyone up one at a time--"

"No need!" Basuto said, hopping over to a rope that hung down from the high branches. "We're already there!"

No sooner had he yanked the rope than a huge boulder tumbled out of the heights of the tree, and InuYasha felt the earth give under his feet. They were being brought upward by what appeared to be a giant fishing net, Kagome and Shippou screaming in delight as the web of rope hauled them up the trunk so fast that when it stopped they kept flying. InuYasha caught the miko and the fox kit before they fell, and Sango landed on Miroku, who had face-planted onto the deck that protruded from the main floor of Basuto's home.

"Let's do that again!" Shippou enthused as Basuto joined them on the balcony.

"Perhaps later, but right now we need to get that toxin out of your two-tail."

Leading them through the sliding door, they entered an ostentatious foyer, a structure that resembled a modern staircase leading to the upper floors. The light of the day outside permeated the rice paper that fronted each window.

"Mageru!" Basuto called, looking around. "He must be up in his room."

The gang followed him up a couple flights of stairs, but when they reached the third floor Kagome froze in the middle of walking down the hallway, her eyes wide.

"What is it?" InuYasha asked her, concerned at her odd behavior.

"I...there's this aura. It's almost like a...like a miko's aura," She said, narrowing her eyes on the length of hallway before them where the others watched as Basuto opened one of the doors.

"I apologize for waking you, Mageru, but I've brought some visitors in need of your healing powers," The elder spoke to someone inside.

Stealing up beside them, Kagome and InuYasha peaked into the room, the former gasping at what met her eyes.

Curled up in a bed of dry leaves, his vibrant azure eyes trained on them, was a kitten about the size of Kirara. His coat was the clear blue color of the sky with spots of pure white like clouds. The white also tipped his ears and paws, and twisted about the ends of his--

"Two tails." InuYasha's ears twitched as Kagome whispered, "Mageru's a two-tail."

- - - -

InuYasha's bowl fell the floor beside the hearth with a clatter, his particularly noisy swallow enunciated by a shamelessly loud belch.

The monk and the kitsune were finishing up their miso as well, Basuto watching them with eyes jaded by his years.

"So, old man," InuYasha drawled, "you say you've been trying to kill this river-demon for fifty years?"

The sounds of gurgling water filtering up into the onsen on the floor above as well as the melodious sounds of girlish giggling mingled with Basuto's answering voice, "Indeed. You are the first of anyone I have seen in a very long while."

The hanyou's eyes narrowed, "You should be angry. You've spent the better part of your life thirsting for revenge on this demon, then someone else just comes along and kills it."

Basuto smiled wearily, "Well, I wouldn't call it the better part of my life, but no, I'm not angry. The spirits of my family and of the other villagers have been put to rest. Who gave them peace, it matters not."

"Hmph. I don't get it."

With that remark the hanyou's attention shifted to the air, where he was internally pleased to discover that Kagome had finished her bath. His sensitive hearing easily detected the voices of her and Sango as the fragrance of vanilla and honey body wash steeped in the air around him.

After making their way down the floors Sango took her seat near Miroku and Shippou, Kagome lowering herself to sit beside the dog demon with the lissomness of her physique. The jewel that hung about her neck glowed a light pink to match the dusky sky beyond the rice paper windows.

By the time InuYasha realized he was staring it was far too late. Jerking his head away from her, he didn't miss the small turning-up of wrinkled lips that stole across Basuto's timeworn features.

The old tree-swinger watched the miko serve herself some miso with the same ghost of a grin before asking, "What is this 'Shikon no Tama' you hold?"

She stopped, wide brown eyes finding his tired ones, "You mean you've never heard of it before?"

"I'm afraid if I ever head anything I have yet to recollect it. But it is clear that it is something the river-demon sought, which can only mean the jewel is evil."

"Partially," The monk said sedately from the taijiya's side. "The jewel is a thing of both good and evil, a fusion of the pure soul of a miko and the base souls of youkai. Its immense power tempts those with wicked hearts, for it has the power to grant its holder any wish when whole."

Observing the jewel with renewed interest, Basuto's brow suddenly creased, "It isn't whole."

"That's what we've been working on for the past two years," Kagome said. "I was the one who shattered the jewel in the first place, and Miroku, Sango, Kirara, and Shippou have been helping InuYasha and I collect the pieces."

"Now that we have most of them though, more demons like that octopus are going to be after us," The hanyou added.

Kagome's hands twisted nervously against the lap of her pleated skirt, "That was a pretty close call."

"Keh! If more youkai come along, so be it. It ain't nothing we can't handle."

"Oh really? What about Takakuri?" She riposted, her tone devoid of any quip.

"That was bad luck!"

"Uh, guys...," Miroku's voice doused out what would surely have become a full fledged shouting match with a quick nod of his head toward the kitsune leaning heavily on the monk's knee, eyes drifting shut.

"It is getting late," Kagome yawned. Sure enough, the sun had already disappeared, leaving the dark sky speckled with the starlight of the Sengoku Jidai.

"Come, my guests," Basuto got to his feet, the firelight dancing over his knobby brown toes. "I will show you to your rooms."

Trailing behind the others as they followed the old man up a flight of stairs, InuYasha halted when Kagome winced, hurriedly relieving her ankle of her weight.

"Kagome?" The scent of her pain trembled in his nostrils.

"I'm fine. My ankle might have gotten injured again when that river-thing pulled me underwater. I can walk just--oh!"

With the schoolgirl safe in his arms, the hanyou took the next two staircases in no more than a few jumps. Alighting at the end of a candlelit corridor, he paused when he saw the others gathered about the doorway of the room that housed the two-tail Mageru as he tended to Kirara.

"InuYasha! Kagome! You have to come see this." The taijiya hissed, motioning for them to join.

Kagome clinging to his haori, he approached the door, meeting a most unexpected sight.

"Oh...," Kagome breathed, placing a hand over her heart.

In the middle of the bed of leaves lay Mageru and Kirara, each kitten curled around the other. But even more remarkable, Mageru was staring down at the fire-neko with an affectionate light in his blue gaze, his fluffy tails warming her body as she dozed.

The first to come out of the trance they'd all seemed to have been put under, Sango passed a snoring Shippou to Miroku before scurrying to the edge of the leafy bed.

"She's...," She began at a whisper, causing Kirara to stir, red eyes lighting upon the slayer, who was shaking slightly. Sango's lip twitched when the kitten leapt into her arms, cuddling her. "She's been healed."

Kirara peeked down at Mageru, uttering a small, "Mew."

The taijiya bowed her head, "Thank you."

The neko turned his noble visage up at her in a feckless manner, as if her gratitude were a paltry thing. Only did he remove his gaze from her when Basuto came to kneel beside the verdant bed.

Each stayed staring into the other's eyes for a timeless minute, and InuYasha got the impression that there was some sort of tacit conversation passing between the old man and the neko, one of esoteric nature that had everything to do with their guests.

The hanyou barely picked up the elder's words, "Are you sure you want to do this, Mageru?"

The kitten gave a curt nod. After staring at his friend thoughtfully for another minute, Basuto stood, heaving a sigh. He looked around at the rest of them, eyes lingering on Sango and Kirara.

"Mageru wishes to accompany you on your quest."

Kagome blinked, "He what?"

"Mageru has kept his vow to stay with me until the river-demon was slain; the death of his mate avenged. Now he wishes to travel with you and your friends."

"I guess it couldn't hurt," InuYasha allowed, recognizing the inner fire glowing in Mageru's eyes as he eyed the fire-neko in the slayer's arms as the instinctual desire to protect what was precious despite all obstacles. "At least no more than having the runt with us does."

His insult fell on deaf ears. Even Kagome's energy seemed to be flagging by now.

As Sango made to leave the room with Kirara, the kitten gave a little mewl of protest.

"You want to stay with Mageru, Kirara?"

Purring, she gave her friend's abdomen a final cuddle before padding back to the bed of foliage and into the warmth of Mageru's tails.

"You don't have to carry me, you know," Kagome demurred weakly as they followed Basuto's steps as he lead them to their quarters down the hall.

"Bullshit. You're hurt," The hanyou countered doggedly. Kagome merely sighed, sinking further against him in her surrender.

Crossing the threshold of the room that had been prepared for her to sleep in, his golden eyes facilely discerned her sleeping bag in the gloom. He knew she could no longer see him in such poor light, but he could see her perfectly. The glossy texture of her hair, her half-closed eyes trying to find him in the darkness as he gently laid her down.

"Where are you going?" Came her quiet question as he made to leave, the words tinged with an entreaty she hadn't tried to hide.

The memory of their early conversation unwittingly assailed him, _'I just wish I could show you how much I trust you.'_

He winced, needing desperately to get his mind off of the girl curled up in her sleeping bag behind him. He'd never been more confused. It was obvious that she trusted him. InuYasha's trust in her was just as unbreakable. It was himself he couldn't trust. He was a dirty-blooded hanyou. How could he trust himself to get close to her knowing what she knew: that one so pure as her and one such as he could never love. Bad things didn't touch her, didn't affect her like the rest of them. She was always optimistic, always accepting, always Kagome. Wasn't it up to him to make sure it stayed that way?

"Sleep," He answered with purposeful brevity, and strode out into the hallway, shutting the door with a muffled _shuck_.

Slumping against her door, his silky bangs fell over his eyes as he stared down at the floor morosely. The thatch felt cool against his hands, the smooth wood of the floor beneath his bare feet splashed with moonlight from a nearby window, through which a few vines had snuck in to writhe about the wall.

It was in that moment, as he peered past the opened window at the face of the waxing moon that had so long been the bane of his existence, that it dawned on him just how much things had changed. The road of the neglected hanyou he'd treaded for so long had all but evanesced, replaced by uncharted territory, a path both terrifying and cleansing, filled with the scent of vanilla and honey.

Never before had he _wished_ that it were the night of the new moon.


End file.
